Chapter 2169 – 2169. Eternal Eden
Bullets pour from the assault rifle.
Pshhh-pshhh.
Thunder Sky Style Electromagnetic Barrier.
Sparks fly, forming a barrier around me. The bullets stop dead in the air the moment they touch the electromagnetic field. The firepower of the rifle bullets is too weak to penetrate the magnetic field created by the electromagnetism.
‘I won’t kill them right away.’
I’m filming right now. It’s not a live broadcast, but it will be released to the public, so I’ll refrain from showing anything too gruesome. Whether I kill them or not after turning off the camera, I need to at least pretend to try to subdue them for now.
I pointed my finger at the floor. The bullets floating in the air all plunged into the floor at once.
It’s a sight that would make an ordinary person’s blood run cold. For ordinary people, guns have a meaning beyond just being weapons. If guns don’t work? That means a monster.
But the man in front of me didn’t flinch, even if he hesitated for a moment.
“Bullets don’t work. We need to re-evaluate the target’s abilities. Use the bombs.”
Three people who had been hiding jumped out and threw bombs at me. At the same time, they scattered and ran. Some through the living room window, some through the terrace connected to the room. Their coordinated movements showed that they were experts among experts.
Click.
The sound of the switch being pressed was particularly loud.
Thunder Sky Style Gale Lightning.
I enhanced my body with lightning and ran towards the guys who were running away. In an instant, I jumped out the window like the guys who had escaped at a speed that transcended human limits.
KWA-AAAAANG!
The bombs exploded behind me. Not only the ones they threw, but also the bombs installed in my room all went off at once. After filming the destruction of the accommodation, I landed on the ground.
My body staggered involuntarily. The Gale Lightning is too much of a burden for my current body.
‘Recovery.’
I recovered my body, which was injured by the excessive movement, and looked around. Four terrorists were scattered and running away. Even for me, it was impossible to catch all four of them.
‘There must be a leader among them… They’re all wearing masks, so there’s no way to tell them apart. I should catch the guy who shot at me with the rifle earlier.’
I ran at full speed towards the guy who was running away, trying to hit him in the back of the head. The guy twisted his body to the side, avoiding my attack.
The guy threw away his gun and magazine and grabbed a knife. A knife-fighting stance. His eyes were unwavering.
‘He’s going to fight me in close combat? His arrogance knows no bounds.’
My combat videos are already all over the internet. If he had seen even one of those videos, he would know that he has absolutely no chance in a one-on-one close combat fight.
‘He’s not ignoring me. He must have a trump card.’
Gulp.
I heard the sound of something being swallowed from behind the mask. At the same time, my question was answered.
‘It was a drug.’
The guy’s eyes became bloodshot, and his capillaries burst, causing blood to flow. His muscles swelled and bulged. It was a drug I didn’t know about.
Thud!
The guy kicked off the ground and charged at me. The simple movement showed a power beyond human limits. His actions were fast, and he was skilled, having received professional training.
‘But he’s still just an ordinary human.’
A superhuman body gained in an instant. No matter how accustomed he is to combat, could he perfectly control it? Of course not. Besides, I’m an expert at dealing with things beyond human limits.
Thunder Sky Style Azure Stream.
I stepped forward. The mysterious footwork blurred the opponent’s sense of distance. It was a technique close to a trick that wouldn’t work if you focused on senses other than sight, but conversely, it was a technique that would definitely work on a guy who focused all his senses on sight.
I passed by the guy’s side and slashed his flank. Blood and guts poured out of the guy’s side. Even so, he tried to fight, swinging his knife, so I also cut his arm. The guy, who had lost both arms, collapsed as if sinking. Despite his severe injuries, he was still alive.
“What’s your name?”
“……”
The guy was silent.
“The equipment you’re wearing isn’t something you can easily get. Who’s behind you? Who ordered you to kill me?”
“……”
The guy continued to be silent.
“They say you have to seize the opportunity when it comes. I asked you twice, and you responded with silence. That means you’ve lost the chance to die peacefully. I don’t want to waste time on something like this, so I’ll give you a final third chance. Say that the Ilwoo Group is behind this.”
“Heh, heh heh.”
The guy laughed. It was a voice like sandpaper scraping against wood.
“I’m going to die soon. You won’t be able to get any information from me. Heh heh heh.”
“You’re being annoying.”
Before the guy completely died, I stabbed his heart with a knife. Slowly. So he could feel the cold blade piercing into him.
I whispered to the guy, who was dying with only weak groans.
“Shall I make a prediction? You’ll end up talking. It probably won’t take long. Two hours at most.”
“Nonsense. I’m… dying…. The dead… have no words…!”
The guy’s breath was cut off. I looked at his corpse and sneered. The dead have no words? I agree. So I need to keep him alive to hear him talk.
I picked up the corpse and went outside the accommodation. The sound of sirens was ringing, so it seemed the police had been dispatched.
‘There are plenty of places to run. There are so many empty houses in the city because of the zombie outbreak.’
I stole a car parked on the side of the road. I broke the window and used lightning to start the car. I roughly threw the corpse in the back seat.
Breaking the window drew attention, but the city was in chaos due to the bomb attack. I used roads with as few people as possible to get out of the city. I went into an old junkyard house on the outskirts of the city. There was no one there.
I lit a bonfire and started boiling water in a discarded drum. Then, I healed the guy. I only healed his torso, leaving his arms and legs cut off. The guy, who opened his eyes, shook his head in confusion, then froze when he saw me.
“…I should have died.”
The guy was confused. Most of the guys who were resurrected for the first time were like that. They were aware of their death, so being alive was strange.
“Death isn’t the end. Don’t you want to say that the Ilwoo Group ordered this?”
“We’ve also been trained to withstand torture. No matter what kind of torture you use, it will never go your way.”
“Yeah. I knew you’d say that. That’s why I prepared this. A purge after use. A boiling death is perfect for a hound like you.”
The guy’s eyes widened. He belatedly discovered the drum of boiling water behind him. Before the guy could say anything, I grabbed him by the back of the neck and threw him into the drum.
“KYYAAAAAAAH!”
With the bubbling water, the man’s body began to cook alive. It wasn’t long before the screams stopped. I pulled out the well-cooked guy, cooled him with cold water, and healed him. Then, I put him back in the drum.
“Wow. I could make endless broth with this.”
After repeating this about three times, the guy seemed to realize my abilities and said with a pale face.
“I’ll talk. I’ll tell you everything!”
“You should have done that from the start. Forget your name, just tell me who ordered this.”
“We’re contract killers. We kill people for money. We received a request to kill you this time. We don’t usually use bombs, but… we received bombs from the client who wanted to be sure.”
“You’re being long-winded. So who is the client?”
“We don’t know either.”
“Is this guy for real?”
He came this far and was playing games with me? He was amazing in a way.
“Would a client who hires someone to kill reveal their identity? Of course, the client hid their identity and hired us.”
“I suppose so.”
I grabbed the guy by the back of the neck. Then, the guy became desperate. Grabbing him by the back of the neck meant I was going to throw him into the drum full of boiling water.
“I know the client’s identity!”
I stopped and looked down at him.
“You said you didn’t know earlier?”
“That’s the rule, but you never know what will happen in this industry. We investigated the client’s background to prepare for the worst.”
“So, what’s the client’s identity?”
“Oh Haebaek. He’s Jin Sunghwa’s secretary, so the real client is Jin Sunghwa.”
“Jin Sunghwa? That name sounds familiar.”
“…She’s the second daughter of the Ilwoo Group’s chairman.”
“Ah. That’s right. That was the name. Jin Sunghwa. What kind of person is she?”
“She’s the president of Ilwoo Pharmaceutical, one of the Ilwoo Group’s affiliates. The drug that gave me the temporary power of a monster was also given to me by the client.”
“A pharmaceutical company.”
A pharmaceutical company in an apocalypse world? It smelled fishy. They must be making biological weapons or something.
‘If they’re the ones controlling Catherine and the monster rats with their technology… it’s possible.’
If it’s the Ilwoo Group, then the reason they tried to kill me makes sense. The Ilwoo Group and I are mortal enemies.
“Jin Sunghwa. Where is that bitch?”
“I don’t know. Ilwoo Pharmaceutical collapsed three months ago due to a variant. Most of the employees died, but… some went missing. There’s no news of Jin Sunghwa at all.”
“But Jin Sunghwa hired you. That means Jin Sunghwa is hiding and doing things behind the scenes. Does she know where Jin Sunghwa is…?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about her secretary, Oh Haebaek?”
“We have a way to contact him… but he won’t answer. There’s been too much commotion.”
“I suppose so.”
I turned on the smartphone camera.
“Say to the camera that you targeted me on the orders of Jin Sukyul, the chairman of the Ilwoo Group.”
“Do you think that kind of public opinion manipulation will work against the Ilwoo Group?”
“Do you want to be boiled more? Do as I say. Oh, and it would be good if you dressed like a terrorist.”
The guy didn’t want to be boiled more, so he obediently followed my instructions.
“Good work.”
After filming the video, I put the guy in the drum and boiled him to death.
I asked Na Chaeyoung to edit the video and then uploaded it to my social media account. The journalists, who were already watching the situation, immediately checked the video and wrote articles.
The Ilwoo Group’s reputation was plummeting, and they were receiving all kinds of insults from the public… but suddenly, pro-Ilwoo Group articles appeared one after another. There were also many people who were criticizing me instead.
‘They’re not going to go down without a fight? The Ilwoo Group is the one who’s at a disadvantage right now, though?’
