Chapter 9: Black Rose (2)
Jin-young was silently listening to the sounds coming from inside.
The civil servant Hunters, led by Inspector Kang Tae-woo, had entered first to engage the villains.
The support team, along with the non-Awakened police, would then arrest the downed villains.
If any civil servant Hunters were injured, the support team would provide aid—that was the full extent of this operation.
It had been the same operation before his regression, and back then, it had failed spectacularly.
Fortunately, no one died, but the civil servant Hunters were injured badly enough to spend days in the hospital.
In particular, Inspector Kang Tae-woo was said to have been seriously hurt, requiring months of leave.
The villains overpowered the civil servants and escaped through a secret route rather than the main entrance, so they never even encountered Jin-young’s support team.
Knowing that fact, Jin-young had used the secret escape route to infiltrate in reverse.
He took advantage of the moment when Jin-sol and the police were busy arresting the downed villains.
The secret passage was dug underground, narrow enough for only one person to barely squeeze through.
Tap-tap-tap-tap—
Jin-young heard footsteps running toward him from the opposite side.
He had already spotted one villain trying to flee through the passage.
“Shit! How the hell did a civil servant know about—!”
The running villain faltered in shock the moment he saw Jin-young.
But he soon sensed something odd and checked Jin-young’s name tag.
“What? No wonder I couldn’t feel any mana—it’s just a measly 9th-grade? I got scared for nothing.”
“……”
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter how you found this place. We’re ditching it regardless. So just pretend you didn’t see anything. I’ll let you live as a special favor.”
“You’ll let me live?”
“Yeah.”
The villain nodded at Jin-young’s question.
“Hm… Then I’ll let you live too.”
“What di—”
Whoosh— CRUNCH!
The villain couldn’t even finish his sentence before his head slammed into the ceiling.
He passed out immediately, his exposed legs going limp.
Jin-young casually swept the legs aside with Psychokinesis and strolled past.
Then he climbed the stairs and pushed open the wall-like door with Psychokinesis.
The civil servant Hunters who had boldly stormed in were already taken down, and one rat bastard was threatening the teenagers.
The syringe filled with black liquid in his hand.
Jin-young knew exactly what it was.
Commonly known as “Black Rose.”
If an ordinary person drank it, they could awaken; if a Hunter drank it, their physical abilities and mana would temporarily surge.
It was initially promoted as a miracle drug, but in reality, it was a narcotic with severe side effects.
At this point in time, even the name “Black Rose” wasn’t well-known yet.
It wouldn’t start circulating on the market until about six months from now.
In other words, what they had was a prototype. They were planning to experiment on the children.
Whoosh— CRASH!
A pebble flung by Jin-young’s Psychokinesis shattered the syringe.
At the same time, the bones in the rat bastard’s hand holding it were crushed.
“Kyaaaaah!”
The rat bastard grabbed his broken right hand and turned his head.
He spotted Jin-young, dressed in a black suit with a civil servant name tag.
“H-Help! The civil servant is killing someone! Save me!”
Crunch—
Tired of hearing the whining, Jin-young twisted both of the bastard’s arms backward.
On top of that, he used Psychokinesis to crush and burst the man’s testicles.
“Grrrk…”
“Me, killing someone? Doesn’t look like it…”
The rat bastard collapsed, foaming at the mouth from indescribable pain.
Before regression, this rat had safely escaped and committed crimes several more times.
In particular, he was obsessed with women and committed multiple sexual assaults before finally being caught by the Intelligence Department.
Jin-young despised this type. Petty cowards who only preyed on the weak.
In Renard, practices varied by country, but rapists were generally not treated as human.
Death was too luxurious for them. Instead, they were subjected to the excruciating pain of having their testicles burst, then forced to live the rest of their lives as eunuchs.
After that, they were usually worked to death as slave soldiers or reduced to living batteries for mad mages.
Since this was the Republic of Korea, Jin-young had been more lenient than in Renard—he stopped at making the bastard a eunuch.
Ignoring the bald man staring at him, Jin-young looked at the civil servant Hunter embedded in the wall.
It was Inspector Kang Tae-woo, whom he had seen before the breach.
Unlike the others, he hadn’t lost consciousness, but his injuries looked far more severe.
He had endured only because he was a higher-grade Hunter.
Jin-young pulled a healing potion from his subspace and sent it floating toward Kang Tae-woo with Psychokinesis.
Seeing the potion suddenly fly over, Kang Tae-woo blinked rapidly.
“You…”
“No unnecessary thoughts—just drink it first.”
“Thanks, but my arms…”
Kang Tae-woo didn’t even seem to have the strength to hold it.
With no choice, Jin-young used psychokinesis to uncork it and poured it straight into his mouth.
Then, looking at the children huddled in the corner, he said,
“Don’t take any detours—go straight home. And don’t get caught by bastards like this again.”
But the children couldn’t move easily.
Jin-young turned his head toward where their gazes were fixed.
The bald man, right hand raised, staring at him.
Shrrrieeeek—
As the man swung his hand, a fierce blade-wind rushed in like a gale.
“Kyaaaa!”
The blade-wind flew toward Jin-young and the children behind him, eliciting screams from the back.
Jin-young had already filled the entire office with psionic energy.
In his eyes, the white-glowing blades were clearly visible.
Of course, they weren’t real blades—just mana clumps shaped like swords.
Powerful enough to easily slice through ordinary human bones.
If the civil servant Hunters who had been hit earlier hadn’t been wearing reinforced suits, they might have lost an arm or more.
Jin-young gathered the blades into one spot with Psychokinesis.
Shhhhhh!
And sent them straight into the ceiling.
“……”
Faced with the unexpected situation, the bald man could only stare at the hole punched in the ceiling.
Jin-young clapped his hands lightly to draw the man’s attention.
“Baldy, your name.”
“…You’re not a 9th-grade Hunter.”
He’d asked for a name, but the bald man spouted nonsense instead.
Jin-young dug in his ear and flicked his finger.
BAM!
The entrance door—the one the civil servants had kicked in—slammed shut.
They were now isolated from Jin-sol and the police waiting outside.
Watching the closed door, the bald man cracked his neck side to side and loosened up.
“You’re making a foolish move. I don’t have just one unique ability.”
Crrrack—
The concrete floor beneath the bald man’s feet cracked and sank inward.
Jin-young tried to snap both of the man’s legs with Psychokinesis.
Tzzzt—
“Oh. Pretty tough.”
It was the same output he’d used to tear apart the limbs of the 3rd-grade boss monster Sand Wraith that had appeared at Gangseo Han River Park.
But the bald man’s legs didn’t budge an inch.
“Cheap tricks like that won’t work on me.”
BOOM—
The bald man shot forward with the speed of a cannonball.
Then, suddenly, he rocketed upward and slammed into the ceiling.
CRAAAASH!
“Seems like physical enhancement type. Hardness around ‘Renadium’ level?”
Renadium was the hardest metal on the Renard continent.
Extremely rare and difficult to refine, only top-tier knights could equip Renadium armaments.
Jin-young remembered being quite flustered the first time he faced a knight commander armed with Renadium.
Because his Psychokinesis hadn’t been able to break the sword.
After learning that such a hard material existed, Jin-young felt the need to increase his power even more.
Of course, he hadn’t lost that battle back then.
He couldn’t break the Renadium, but he could still make it move.
BOOM!
The bald man shattered the ceiling with his bare body and charged straight at Jin-young.
CRASH!
But he missed Jin-young and slammed headfirst into the bare floor again.
“No learning ability, huh, Baldy? Your head’s tough, but using it like that just makes things worse.”
Crrraack— BOOM!
The bald man lifted the floor itself to pull his embedded upper body free.
“……”
He said nothing, just glaring at Jin-young.
From that gaze, Jin-young sensed a familiar feeling.
“Trying to run?”
“It seems you and I are a bad match. This fight won’t end anyway. Wouldn’t the best path for both of us be to pretend we never met and part ways?”
“What a long-winded excuse. You’re trying to run, right? It’s a bit pathetic.”
“You don’t understand me. Anyway, between us—”
Snap—
Mid-sentence, the bald man looked down at his shin bone, suddenly bent at a grotesque angle.
A faint red and blue glow emanated from Jin-young’s extended arm.
“I’ve pretty much figured you out now, so no more holding back.”
“What…”
Crunch—
Next, his knees folded backward.
Thud!
The bald man collapsed to the floor.
“Gaaah…”
Even he, who rarely felt pain, widened his eyes and groaned.
Just moments ago, it had barely tickled, but now it was the most vivid pain he’d felt since awakening.
“I was holding back earlier so nothing would burst.”
“Impossible… A power that toys with my ‘Indestructible Vajra Body’…?”
The bald man was still in denial.
“People, you know—once they think they’ve become strong, they stop developing and settle into complacency.”
Even though Jin-young had won without breaking Renadium, he wasn’t satisfied with just that.
“Well, there was a time when I was content after gaining great power too. But that crazy old man… no, my master wouldn’t leave me alone like that.”
Having desperately survived, Jin-young eventually succeeded in shattering even Renadium with his Psychokinesis.
That made him unmatched among humans, and he even brought the continent’s strongest beings—dragons—to their knees.
There would be no rivals for him on this Earth he’d returned to after 33 years, but Jin-young had no intention of stopping his growth.
Nor did he plan to leave those who disturbed the peace alone.
“Baldy, your name.”
“Guh… Who the hell are you…?”
“I asked first. This is the third time if I ask again. You know what that means, right?”
He wasn’t sure what that meant, but the bald man calmly gathered his thoughts.
He concluded that giving his name wouldn’t hurt.
“…Lee Cheol-ho.”
‘Lee Cheol-ho… Never heard that name even before regression.’
Not having heard it before wasn’t a problem. He could learn about him starting now.
“Alright, Baldy. We’re finally communicating. Actually, I’m the type who prefers conversation over violence.”
“……”
Lee Cheol-ho wanted to ask what kind of bullshit that was.
But the pain from his broken bones, combined with the strange aura emanating from Jin-young, stopped him.
“I-Inspector Kang.”
“Uh… yes?”
Kang Tae-woo reacted belatedly to Jin-young’s sudden call.
“You should be able to move a bit now. Take the kids and head out first. From here on, it might not be great for their emotional development.”
“Understood.”
Thanks to the potion, Kang Tae-woo dragged his recovering body over to the children.
Then he led them down the secret underground passage where Jin-young had first appeared.
“Now, Baldy. Let’s have an open talk. Who’s your backer?”
“That… I can’t tell you. Even if it means my death.”
“Oh, really? I’ve never seen anyone who said that actually choose a heroic death.”
One of Jin-young’s nicknames in Renard was “Confessor of Darkness.”
His psychokinesis enabled far more than imagined, and opponents would spill the truth like confessing sins.
“I wonder how you’ll hold up. With such a tough body, I’m curious how long you can endure.”
Jin-young said calmly with sunken eyes.
A sudden chill ran down Lee Cheol-ho’s spine, and he swallowed hard without realizing it.