* * *

“Is everything finally ready?”

[“Why else would I call?”]

“Much later than I expected. I thought I’d grow mold waiting.”

[“Don’t be like that. What was I supposed to do when that bastard Wang—or Wing, or whatever his name is—wouldn’t let go of me?”]

The braided-haired man paid no attention to Ryu Gang-cheol’s grumbling. He merely gazed out the window and spoke evenly.

“Enough excuses. Make sure you’re ready. If you slip up again and the plan goes wrong, you’ll be the one to pay for it, Fool Comrade.”

[“You’d better do your part too, Commander Comrade. We won’t get a second chance.”]

“Do you think you know something I don’t? A fool is a fool to the end.”

[“Isn’t that a bit much to say to a comrade risking his life?!”]

“What’s so harsh about it? Even those ‘above’ us acknowledge your life isn’t worth much.”

[“Even if it’s true, there’s a limit to what you should say!”]

Ryu bristled, though he did not dispute the value placed on his life. As if something had just occurred to him, the man added, “Oh, and contact Mad Comrade too.”

[“Why are you making me do that as well?”]

“Because one briefing won’t be enough to make Mad Comrade follow the plan. Someone needs to help keep things on track.”

[“So now I have to play messenger too?”]

“Aren’t odd jobs like that your specialty? You’re an idiot, but at least you have plenty of energy.”

[“What am I, a worker for the people?!”]

“If you don’t like it, disobey my orders.”

The man hung up.

Despite what he had said, he did not believe Ryu would neglect the mission. It was not because he trusted Ryu’s character. Nor did he trust their solidarity. Their organization, the Liberation Brigade, had been a gathering place for madmen, murderers, and criminals from the start.

He had one reason for trusting him: both Ryu and he knew that if they botched this mission, those ‘above’ them would not let it go.

“It will be quite a show.”

The man smiled, looking forward to the historic spectacle about to begin.

* * *

The Wang family of Shanghai occupied the lowest place among the Black Dragon Clan’s distinguished families. That standing often drew ridicule, but the Wang family was distinguished for a reason: its strength was far from negligible.

Proof lay in its combat units, the Seven Dragons Society’s fighting force composed entirely of experts, each the equal of a high-level player. Experts were rare even in the Seven Dragons Society. Forming a unit solely from them was something only a family with both exceptional martial arts and ample wealth could accomplish.

“Do not let your guard down.”

At this moment, the unit’s members were on high alert. They might not have had the honor of receiving a shared name from the princess, but they were the Wang family of Shanghai’s combat unit. They prided themselves on being able to obey their combat chief, Wang Lun, instantly—even if he ordered them to lie down and imitate insects.

“He is the killer who harmed our deputy family head, and a high-ranking officer of the notorious Liberation Brigade.”

Above all, they had reasons they could not afford to relax. First was their mission. Second was the massive truck behind them. Third was Ryu Gang-cheol inside it, his acupoints sealed throughout his body and his limbs bound in shackles and a straitjacket. Fourth was the fact that they had all seen the carnage at Black Dragon Construction—including the mutilated body of Wang Gi-seong.

“Fight with everything you have. The fate of our family depends on the outcome of this escort.”

The deputy family head’s gruesome death. The family’s perilous position. Wang Lun’s stern demeanor. For one or all of those reasons, the unit’s members radiated a tension as sharp as blades. Wang Lun swept his gaze over them, then gave the signal in a booming voice.

“Move out!”

One heavily armored transport truck. One light tactical vehicle fitted with a machine gun. Six bulletproof SUVs carrying the combat unit. The convoy of eight vehicles and thirty-one people, including Ryu Gang-cheol, set off from Black Dragon Construction’s headquarters.

It was a commanding sight, an escort force that seemed ready to sweep aside anyone who blocked its path.

‘Let anyone who dares come at us!’

‘We’ll beat them back on the honor of the Wang family of Shanghai!’

The convoy’s confidence showed just how much care Wang Gi-neung had put into preparing this escort.

If they were attacked and Ryu Gang-cheol escaped, no one knew better than Wang Gi-neung how much trouble the Wang family would be in. That was why he had spared none of the family’s strength for this escort.

Thirty experts from the combat unit were enough to wage an all-out battle against most major guilds. Even if the Liberation Brigade was a notorious international criminal organization, Wang had every reason to believe it could not break through this escort and rescue Ryu.

At least, the members assigned to the mission believed that without a doubt.

BOOM!

“What?!”

“Vehicle One...?!”

With a sudden, deafening blast, the SUV leading the convoy was hurled backward into the air.

“Who the hell dares—guh!”

Their comrades sprang from the airborne SUV like grasshoppers, only to be slammed into the ground after a black shadow flashed past them.

THUD!

The SUV finally fell to earth upside down. The black shadow landed lightly atop it, blocking the convoy’s path—a figure shrouded head to toe in black cloth.

“Ambush!”

[“Vehicles Two, Three, and Four, prepare to engage! Vehicles Five and Six, escort Owl’s Nest and the Falcon out of here!”]

Perhaps they had anticipated an attack. Perhaps their rigorous training was to thank. Though shaken by the sudden ambush, the Wang family’s combat unit responded swiftly. Warriors poured from three SUVs like a swarm of bees and formed a battle formation around the figure. The transport truck and the vehicles accompanying it reversed, executed dazzling spin turns, and began speeding off in the opposite direction.

Their response was so smooth that an uninformed onlooker might have mistaken it for a staged show or a movie shoot. But this was no show, and the black-clad stranger had no intention of letting the convoy escape like some movie villain.

A slight crook of the fingers.

“You bastard!”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you telling us to come at you...?”

The black cloth—whether rags or a cloak, no one could tell—parted to reveal a bandaged hand. Two fingers extended from it and crooked upward. The combat unit members surrounding the stranger took it for a taunt and bristled.

BOOOOM!

“...?!?!”

The next moment, they could only stare in shock. As soon as the stranger crooked those fingers, the two SUVs that were about to flee sprang off the ground like frogs with a thunderous roar.

BANG! CRASH! BOOM!

Following the movements of those fingers, the SUVs bounced around like rubber balls until they slammed into the tactical vehicle and tumbled together. Controlling two heavy vehicles merely by pointing at them was nothing short of astonishing. The power sent a chill down their spines.

But its threat was not the only reason the unit members were stunned.

‘Psychokinesis!’

‘At that strength, could that be someone from the Gold Dragon Clan?’

‘But I didn’t sense any psionics. Then...!’

They reached their conclusion in an instant.

When the stranger pointed at the last remaining transport vehicle, the combat unit responded like lightning.

“It’s a player with a psychokinesis skill!”

“Close in! Don’t give them time to use it!”

“Three-Pronged Arrowhead Formation, deploy!”

Three warriors threw nail-shaped concealed weapons called Bone-Piercing Nails to hinder the stranger’s movement. Three charged with swords raised from directly ahead and the rear on either side. Three more prepared a staggered follow-up attack from directly behind and the front on either side, while the last three fell back as reserves against an attack from behind or any unexpected turn of events.

The moment the stranger moved, all twelve warriors carried out their roles at once without the slightest misstep, like precisely meshing gears. Positions, weapons, stances, breathing, even the flow of their psionics—all aligned against a single opponent. Together, they were a perfect killing machine.

‘This ends it!’

The unit members were certain that even a high-level player could not escape their Three-Pronged Arrowhead Formation. Within twenty exchanges, they would pierce the stranger’s body; within fifty, sever an arm; within a hundred, end their life.

SLICE!

“... Huh?”

That certainty might have held if the Bone-Piercing Nails had not dropped to the ground the instant the stranger swept the black cloth aside, and if, after a light flick of those fingers, all twelve of their swords had not been cut clean through at once, as though struck by something unseen.

And that was only the beginning.

“Gah?!”

“Urgh!”

Each time the stranger crooked a finger, a unit member’s limbs bent out of shape or their body flipped and flew through the air. The warriors fought with everything they had, but their efforts were futile. With no warning or delay, the stranger blocked their every movement and hurled them aside using nothing but those fingers. Their desperate struggle amounted to helpless flailing.

Two exchanges to lose their weapons. Five to be scattered in every direction. Ten to take the final blow.

By the time an ordinary person could have drawn only a few breaths, not one of the warriors who had faced the stranger remained standing on two sound legs. The street had become a makeshift ward of unconscious men foaming at the mouth and severely injured men groaning, their bodies battered to a pulp.

BANG!

“Stop right there, you bastard!”

Perhaps the tactical vehicle’s door had jammed. Combat chief Wang Lun tore it clean off and leaped out. Though stunned to see his unit destroyed in the space of a few blinks, he rushed the stranger like lightning and unleashed a kick.

FWA-FWA-FWA-FWAK!

His leg was a weapon in itself, tearing everything from the ground to the air apart under its crushing force. It was a terrifying attack, more like a grinder than a kick.

BOOM!

“Guh?!”

But the result was the same. Before his kick could connect, a crook of the stranger’s finger lifted Wang Lun into the air and slammed him back into the tactical vehicle.

There was only one difference between Wang Lun and his subordinates: unlike the unit members who had fallen without knowing what hit them, he had seen a flash of light. But whether he saw it or not, he too had been felled in an instant.

The unit members who had somehow remained conscious could only stare, eyes bulging.

‘H-how can a monster like that exist...?’

They could not believe it. The Wang family of Shanghai might rank last among the distinguished families, but they were still its combat unit. Even against a duke-class player, they were confident they could put up a fight, if not win.

Yet this monster had crushed them single-handedly and felled Wang Lun—the heir to the Soul-Locking Severing Kicks style and an expert of combat-chief caliber—with a single move. It was a nightmare.

The stranger paid no attention to the unit members staring in horror. They merely crooked a finger toward the transport truck.

CRUNCH! RIIIP!

The truck was trapped between the overturned vehicles, unable to move in either direction. Its door, roof hatch, and walls were ripped away in turn, leaving Ryu Gang-cheol, still in his straitjacket, exposed in the middle of the gutted truck. The stranger approached him slowly.

“Uh, comrade? Fellow Comrade? I’m grateful you seem to have come to rescue me, but could you go a little easy when you—”

SLICE.

“...???”

It happened in an instant. The stranger crooked a finger; Ryu Gang-cheol’s severed head dropped; and blood sprayed out like a fountain, staining everything around it red.

The unit members who witnessed it gaped, their eyes bulging for an entirely different reason. The stranger ignored them, flexed their hand a few times, then glanced down at the floor. As though checking something—or dissatisfied with something—they gazed for a moment at Ryu’s head, black light shimmering in their eyes.

“... I see. So that was it?”

SPLAT!

After muttering softly to themselves, the stranger flicked a finger again and tore Ryu Gang-cheol’s corpse to pieces. Then they sprang away. The surviving unit members could only watch in a daze as the stranger vanished among the towers like a bird taking flight.