Chapter 24: Psycho (3)
“……”
Chae So-young opened and closed her mouth, unsure of how to react.
Jin-young had given her a condensed version of the story:
During the Gangseo Han River Park gate outbreak, he had gained tremendous power, used it to hunt villains, and ended up joining the Intelligence Department.
He had planned to reveal everything around two months after his regression—right around the time the Hongcheon Contaminated Zone entry was imminent.
But now he had to tell her about a month earlier than expected.
Even though he had completely omitted the part about the regression, her face still showed clear disbelief.
If he had included the regression story as well, she would have been even more confused—so he decided to push that revelation back even further.
“If you really can’t believe it, follow me. I’ll show you.”
“No… It’s not that I don’t believe you’ve become stronger, Oppa. It’s just…”
Chae So-young hesitated for a moment before continuing.
“I’m glad you’ve gotten strong… but at the same time, I’m worried you’ll get caught up in something dangerous.”
“The one who needs to worry isn’t me—it’s you.”
At Jin-young’s words, Chae So-young lowered her head.
Ever since she awakened, she had charged forward without looking back.
Her brother, who had awakened earlier, had been evaluated as having near-zero growth potential and had been ignored while living the life of a civil servant Hunter.
That was why she had resolved to become desperately strong.
She would grow strong, earn a lot of money in her brother’s place, and protect him from all the trash out there.
During the gate outbreak back in their hometown of Hongcheon, it was her brother who had saved her life.
And after moving to unfamiliar Seoul, it was her brother who fed her and gave her a roof over her head.
Chae So-young had grown strong at an astonishing speed.
The SP Guild had highly valued her potential and promised her full support.
Yet she wasn’t satisfied with that—she worked tirelessly to become the best within the guild.
But what came back to her was betrayal.
“What… what am I supposed to do now…?”
She had believed with all her heart that Guild Master Min Hae-joon would never be the kind of person to do something like this, which made the sense of betrayal all the more painful.
If it hadn’t been for her brother, she would have been betrayed without even knowing why and died alone and forgotten in the contaminated zone.
Betrayal, relief, anxiety about the future—all of it tangled together and finally spilled out as tears.
Jin-young waited quietly until his sister had calmed down a little.
Once she seemed ready to talk again, he spoke.
“I’ve secured the list of everyone involved in this. Intelligence Department personnel, including me, will be heading into the contaminated zone. So until the day of the operation, stay quietly inside the guild. I’ll get you out of there in Hongcheon.”
“And after that…?”
“The complete annihilation of every SP Guild member participating in this operation. And every villain behind the scenes as well.”
That was what a contaminated zone was like.
A place where any kind of “unfortunate accident” would raise no eyebrows.
Above all, to wipe out the 1st-grade villains from GODS who were the true masterminds behind this plan, he first had to let Min Hae-joon and the SP group enter deep into the contaminated zone.
Then, among the guild members not participating in this operation, those connected to villain organizations like GODS would be eliminated using the Intelligence Department.
The rest would be placed under surveillance until the situation stabilized.
“Once Min Hae-joon and his lackeys are gone, there’ll be no reason for you to stay in SP anymore. Joining another guild is an option, but before that, I think it would be better for you to train with me.”
“Train… with you, Oppa? Suddenly…?”
“In my eyes, if you get pushed just a little harder, you have the potential to go much further.”
For a moment, Jin-young recalled the first day he spent with his master in Renard.
He vaguely felt like he was beginning to understand what that madman had seen in him back then—now that he was looking at his own sister.
Unaware of any of this, Chae So-young simply stared at him strangely.
“I don’t really get what you mean, but… I’ll think about it later. For now, surviving those damned traitors comes first.”
She clenched both fists tightly as she spoke.
“Right. Until the day you enter the contaminated zone, don’t do anything suspicious—just act like you normally would.”
“But… with Oh Jong-yeon suddenly disappearing, won’t that cause problems?”
“There’ll be confusion at first, sure. But suspicion won’t turn toward you. And there are plenty of people who can replace him, so the Hongcheon operation will proceed as planned.”
If the Hongcheon operation were canceled, that would actually be even better.
He could just wait for the right moment and eliminate Min Hae-joon himself.
“Got it. I’ll do my best. And… thank you.”
***
A man whose reinforced suit looked ready to burst at the seams entered the Intelligence Department’s secret base.
The leader of the villain organization Tricksters, codename Dolsae—Wang Geun-seok.
The moment he saw Intelligence Department Director Jeong Bo-hoon, he bowed ninety degrees.
“Have you been well, Director? I’m sorry I haven’t been able to contact you often.”
“No need to worry about that. For us, no news is good news.”
“That’s true, haha.”
Wang Geun-seok showed a completely different, affable side compared to when he was the villain boss Berserker.
While the two were exchanging greetings, a man and a woman appeared.
“Long time no see, Advisor. I heard you were recently in the Buan Contaminated Zone. Who the hell purified that place?”
The moment Wang Geun-seok saw Choi Hee-yeon, he immediately asked.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
But Choi Hee-yeon replied with a cool expression and an equally chilly tone.
Wang Geun-seok shrugged and gave the man standing beside her a quick once-over.
This was the new agent, Psycho.
His first impression was disappointing.
“Looking all scrawny like that… you probably struggle to catch even one monster. Come on, a real man should be built like this, right?”
Wang Geun-seok flexed his arm muscles hard, showing off sleeves that looked ready to burst.
But Psycho responded with an utterly uninterested face.
“You look strong, but your movements seem full of unnecessary flair.”
“…What?”
The blunt remark, completely unbecoming of a rookie, genuinely shocked Wang Geun-seok.
It had been a very long time since someone had criticized him so directly—and worse, it was a point he himself was aware of, which made it sting even more.
Sensing the unusual atmosphere, Jeong Bo-hoon spoke in a low voice.
“There will be plenty of chances for a spar later. How about we just keep it to greetings for today?”
“Director, I’d like to exchange a proper ‘physical’ greeting with the rookie. Please allow it. No—actually, I’ll do it even if you don’t allow it. This is a matter of a man’s pride.”
Wang Geun-seok openly displayed his belligerence toward Psycho.
He looked ready to charge at any second.
“Can you keep it moderate and stop at an appropriate point?”
At Jeong Bo-hoon’s question, Wang Geun-seok nodded.
“Director, don’t you trust me?”
“No, I’m not asking you. I’m asking Psycho.”
“…Huh?”
Caught off guard by the unexpected reply, Wang Geun-seok blinked in surprise.
Psycho gave him a slow once-over before speaking.
“If you want to act like a proper human being, ‘moderate’ probably isn’t going to cut it.”
At this point, Wang Geun-seok’s anger toward Psycho began to shift into curiosity.
Just who was this guy that even the Director was treating him this way?
He usually preferred using his body over his head, but this time he couldn’t just brush it off lightly.
The faint aura of madness he sensed from the other man also played a part.
Wang Geun-seok took up a serious combat stance.
“I’m going to use my ability. Everyone, step back. Except you, rookie.”
Psycho simply shrugged and stayed right where he was.
The other two, well aware of Wang Geun-seok’s unique ability ‘Berserk,’ retreated as far as the space allowed.
Given the limitations of the room, it wasn’t exactly safe, but they didn’t seem particularly concerned.
“Uwaaaaaah!!”
Soon after, Wang Geun-seok let out a ferocious roar.
His already massive muscles swelled even larger, and his skin flushed a deep red.
His eyes, now pure white sclera with no visible pupils, truly looked like they saw nothing at all.
Berserk caused him to lose all reason in exchange for a massive overall increase in combat power.
His already formidable strength became overwhelming, and his previously lacking speed and explosiveness were dramatically improved—making him terrifying in every way.
The only major drawback was that he couldn’t distinguish friend from foe, and the ability was far too conspicuous for most missions.
His deployment to this Hongcheon operation was an exception, and even then, he was only meant to serve as backup rather than take the forefront.
The original purpose had simply been for everyone to exchange greetings.
But now that things had escalated this far, Jeong Bo-hoon thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to let them gauge each other’s strength right here and now.
Still…
“If even Dolsae ends up unable to participate in the mission, we’ll be in real trouble.”
As Jeong Bo-hoon muttered to himself, Choi Hee-yeon immediately turned around and said,
“I’ll go gather every high-grade potion we have.”
***
Jin-young watched the charging Dolsae and couldn’t help but admire him.
It was like watching a tank charge forward at sports-car speed.
If only he could maintain his reason, he would truly be the pinnacle among physical enhancement-type abilities.
‘There is one way to make that possible.’
Jin-young caught Dolsae with psychokinesis and hurled him straight toward the wall.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-bang—!
Dolsae smashed through several walls and disappeared beyond them.
Jin-young spoke to Choi Hee-yeon, who was about to leave.
“While you’re at it, bring as many iron clubs as you can.”
“Understood.”
Choi Hee-yeon didn’t even think to ask why and quickly moved out.
“Kraaaaah!”
Soon after, the excited Dolsae burst back through the broken wall.
In Renard, there had been a similar creature.
A massive bear called the ‘Bear King,’ a beast that went berserk the moment it saw a human.
After much effort, Jin-young had succeeded in taming that ferocious animal.
The secret wasn’t anything special.
He had simply appropriately copied his master’s training method.
“Graaaaah!”
Bound by psychokinesis, Dolsae roared, spittle flying from his mouth.
At that moment, Choi Hee-yeon returned, arms full of iron clubs.
“Junior, here are the clubs…”
Before she could even finish speaking, four iron clubs flew out of her arms.
They shot toward Dolsae and began swinging wildly.
Thud! Thwack—
To Dolsae, whose durability had skyrocketed, it felt no more than a massage.
More precisely, it wasn’t that he didn’t feel the impacts—he simply couldn’t register the pain.
Of course, it wasn’t that he felt nothing at all.
The iron clubs began swinging even harder.
Swoosh— Bam!
A sound like tearing air was followed by a dull, heavy impact.
“Urgh! Grrraaah!”
After endless beatings, groans finally escaped Dolsae’s mouth.
How many times had he been struck?
By the time his skin had peeled away and the flowing blood had clotted into sticky clumps—
His mana was completely depleted, and the Berserk state automatically released.
As he returned to normal, Jin-young also withdrew the iron clubs.
“Ughhh… What the hell is this…?”
Dolsae, with no memory whatsoever of what happened during Berserk, stared in horror at his own tattered body.
When Choi Hee-yeon approached to feed him a potion, Jin-young stopped her.
“He can still move his body, so let him drink it himself.”
“No strain…? Are you serious…?”
Dolsae couldn’t even twitch from the pain. Every attempt to move felt like his entire body was screaming.
Had he ever been beaten this mercilessly before?
He couldn’t even begin to guess what had been done to him.
“Hurry… the potion…”
At that moment, a potion bottle floated right in front of Dolsae’s nose.
The red liquid inside sloshed back and forth.
It seemed almost as if it were taunting him—come and get me if you can.
“……”
Suddenly, a spark of defiance ignited in Dolsae.
“Grrrrraaaaaah!!”
Fighting against the pain that felt like his whole body was on fire, he barely managed to move his arm.
Just as his trembling hand was about to touch the bottle—
Swoong—
The potion floated higher.
The bottle swayed again, almost mockingly, as if wiggling its hips.
At that sight, Dolsae’s eyes rolled back as if he were about to trigger Berserk once more.
“Fuuuuck!!”
With a monstrous roar, he forced his upper body upright and succeeded in snatching the potion.
Watching this, Jin-young nodded and said,
“See? You can do it. Drink that, and let’s go for round two.”
“……”
The hand holding the potion bottle to his mouth froze solid.