Chapter 16 : Righteous Hero

Chapter 16: Righteous Hero

“Was it you who killed Machil?”

Gi Dae-hyo spoke again to Dong Bong-su, who did not answer.

Glancing to the side, Gi Man-ji was making a startled expression at Gi Dae-hyo’s abrupt words. If he had been an ordinary murderer, there would have been some change in his face, a look that screamed I’m a killer.

Of course, Dong Bong-su’s expression remained unchanged.

Gi Dae-hyo quietly stared into Dong Bong-su’s clouded eyes.

With unfocused, foolish eyes, they roamed all over the place, as if he were utterly terrified by Gi Dae-hyo’s appearance. Even so, Gi Dae-hyo stubbornly peered into Dong Bong-su’s gaze.

The eyes with which Gi Dae-hyo stared, as though he might pluck out Dong Bong-su’s eyeballs, seemed to be saying this:

‘You are the culprit. No, you have to be the culprit!’

Gi Dae-hyo had spent his entire life dealing with law enforcement methods and intelligence, and in this field, he lived with the confidence that he surpassed even the Beggars’ Sect, the Hao Gate, and the authorities. Throughout the entire day, he had visited every location where the Suicide Plague had occurred.

The results were....

Nothing.

His son, Gi Man-ji, had told him that perhaps all of this truly happened because of the plague, but Gi Dae-hyo had flatly denied it.

If it were a plague, shouldn’t there be traces of a plague? Black spots, the stench of rot, wasn’t there not a single sign of any epidemic?

It could not be a plague.

Then if it was not a plague.

Who was the culprit? Who had to be the culprit?

He had examined every location, and every crime scene, without exception, was a sealed room just like that room at the Bongyang Inn. There were no traces of intrusion by anyone, and only a suicide victim lay there alone. It felt contrived. Too perfect, far too perfect. As if a god were to exist, it was that god who had committed the murders.

Once more, he stared into Dong Bong-su’s pupils. As expected, they were foolish eyes that gave no hint of what they were seeing.

‘No. There’s no way the one responsible would have eyes like these.’

Gi Dae-hyo had come to see Dong Bong-su to confirm the very last possibility.

Not only had he meticulously checked the scenes, but he had also met every single person staying in the rooms adjacent to the sealed rooms where the suicides occurred. Everyone except Dong Bong-su.

Before coming here, the situation had already been such that Dong Bong-su alone remained as a suspect.

And now.

Even that final suspect was removed from the list of suspects.

“Hoo—. Let’s go.”

“Yes? Ah, yes. Father.”

Hearing Gi Dae-hyo’s words, Gi Man-ji wore an expression that said he had no idea what was going on, and then left the stable.

Before departing the stable, Gi Dae-hyo turned his head and looked back at Dong Bong-su one more time.

‘As expected, it’s not him....’

Hands and feet that looked like they would snap if stepped on, a chest that seemed as though it would shatter if touched carelessly. That body was absolutely not one that had trained the Shrinking Bone Art. No, there was no way he was a hidden master of the unorthodox factions to begin with.

A man with a body far weaker than even the usual neighborhood hoodlums.

That was Gi Dae-hyo’s assessment of Dong Bong-su.

“Hoo—.”

Leaving behind one last sigh, Gi Dae-hyo disappeared just like that.

He would probably not be able to fall asleep easily tonight. On the other hand, Dong Bong-su, the so-called “Suicide Plague carrier,” and the very culprit who had massacred gangs of ordinary hoodlums, would fall into a deep sleep beneath that same roof.

Dong Bong-su’s eyes followed Gi Dae-hyo’s back until he completely left the stable. Through the open door, thick moonlight poured in, licking over Dong Bong-su’s clear yet grotesque eyes as it passed.

What a shame.

Gi Dae-hyo should have seen those eyes.

Those eyes of Dong Bong-su, whose shadows lay sharply defined even under the moonlight.

Creeeak. Thud.

The stable once again became a world of silent darkness.

Dong Bong-su’s shadowed eyes were finally able to hide their light within that pitch-black space.

For a while, he remained in that same posture, organizing in his mind the new rule he had been working on earlier. Then, as always, he lay his body down in his straw-laid nest.

“Looks like I’ll be a bit busier starting tomorrow.”

A lot of new prey had appeared.

On a night when the moonlight shimmered eerily.

The Suicide Plague vanished from Bongyang without leaving a trace.

And starting tomorrow, a new killing wind would sweep through Bongyang.

● ● ●

New Murim Online Rule No. 4: When taking items out of the Inventory, they could be pulled out through any part of Dong Bong-su’s body.

New Murim Online Rule No. 5: Upon leveling up, white light burst forth from the body, and all wounds on the body were completely healed. At the same time, all stats increased slightly.

New Murim Online Rule No. 6: Skills were subject to a proficiency system. In other words, the more a skill was used, the more proficient it became.

New Murim Online Rule No. 7: The passive skill Spirit Eye identified dangerous elements that approached within a 20-meter radius of Dong Bong-su and informed him.

● ● ●

Not long after the Suicide Plague disappeared.

Such rumors began to circulate in Bongyang.

- An Unnamed Righteous Hero had appeared and was punishing the Black thugs!

“Black thugs” referred to members of the Black Division. Ordinary commoners often called them by another name: stinking trash.

No matter how much they praised themselves with grandiose titles like back-alley heroes or shadow guardians, trash was still trash.

The Black thugs said, “Illegality is our own way of survival!”

Spouting flashy double-talk that even a dog struck by midsummer heat wouldn’t bark at, these scum of humanity who ruled Bongyang’s back alleys and markets, those were the Black thugs.

The people of the market continued their livelihoods, and in order to keep food in their mouths, they had no choice but to pay money under the pretense of “protection fees” to the Black Division and keep doing business. Inside, their resentment brimmed over, ready to spill out of their mouths at any moment, but what could they do?

Poverty was a crime.

Being weak was a crime.

And yet the greatest crime was having no choice but to endure and live on regardless.

And then.

From one day on, the Black thugs began dying off. When one or two died at first, people merely thought it was an internal power struggle among the Black Division. Then one became two, two became four, four became eight....

And eventually.

Of the Three-Colored Black Divisions that had ruled Bongyang’s back alleys, the White Tiger Division and the Red Wolf Gate were wiped out, leaving only the Black Snake Society.

People did not hesitate to call him a righteous hero. They praised him as a true righteous hero who carried out justice from unseen places.

Rumors spread endlessly, branching and multiplying, until even whispers arose that the Suicide Plague itself had been eliminated by the Unnamed Righteous Hero.

Going even further, before anyone realized it, all acts of chivalry that occurred within Bongyang City had become attributed to his achievements.

Now, whether those rumors were true or not no longer mattered. He had already become a perfect heroic champion of justice in the hearts of the people of Bongyang.

People were still curious about him, but no one knew his true identity, and not a single person had even seen his shadow.

Thus, people called him,

The Unnamed Righteous Hero.

● ● ●

The Unnamed Righteous Hero went out into the night streets again today to carry out justice.

He headed for Paradise Village, the last remaining crime-ridden area in Bongyang. Paradise Village lay at the northern edge of Bongyang, a place where crumbling abandoned houses clung together like an anthill. Calling it a village was generous; it was a breeding ground for every kind of depravity, and in reality, one of the core dens of the Black Snake Society.

It was such a terrifying place that even during the day, few people walked there unless they were Black thugs of the Black Snake Society. At night like this, it hardly needed saying how much worse it was.

A bleak, desolate atmosphere pressed down upon the entire village.

Was it just his imagination?

The air felt so dense it was suffocating, making the place seem even more barren and grim than usual.

The Unnamed Righteous Hero quietly slipped into that sinister Paradise Village.

At some point,

“Urgh!”

A short scream announcing the start of chivalry echoed through Paradise Village.

“He’s here! Hit him! Hit him! Kill him!”

As if they had been waiting for that very moment, black shadows appeared all at once throughout Paradise Village, raising a clamor. They were the Black thugs of the Black Snake Society. They had been waiting for the Unnamed Righteous Hero to show himself.

Now that the Unnamed Righteous Hero had appeared, if they wanted to survive, they had no choice but to kill him with everything they had.

“Uaaah!”

“Kill him!”

“You son of a bitch! Die!”

True to the nature of Black thugs, they spat out every kind of profanity and charged like lightning toward the place where the first scream had been heard.

There, unmistakably dressed differently from them, stood a single slender, masked figure. He was probably the Unnamed Righteous Hero.

As if he had anticipated their appearance in advance, the moment they emerged, the Unnamed Righteous Hero dashed straight toward the Black thugs.

Swish! Slash! Thud!

Slashing, cutting, stabbing.

With just a few concise movements, more than ten Black Snake Society thugs collapsed onto the ground, spraying blood. The corpses lying beneath the moonlight soon grew cold.

The Unnamed Righteous Hero did not stop there. He continued charging forward, butchering every Black thug in his path. Dozens of remaining thugs followed after him, brandishing swords, sabers, and spears.

“Die!”

Thud.

A tall man at the very front of the pursuit thrust his spear toward the Unnamed Righteous Hero’s back. A faint sound of air leaking out followed, had he pierced the Unnamed Righteous Hero’s heart?

“...Huh?”

No.

That had been nothing more than his wishful thinking. The one who actually died was the man who had thrust the spear. In his eyes rose a light of utter confusion, as if he had no idea what had just happened.

“Guhhk....”

A low groan leaked from his mouth, but it never made it all the way out. That was because a sword buried deep inside his mouth was slicing through his Adam’s apple.

Just before heading to the underworld, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

‘How did a sword come flying from behind my head....’

But even that stray thought could not continue to the end. The sword lodged in his neck split his brain cleanly in two.

His companions were still some distance away, so they did not see at all how he had died. That was their fatal mistake. Had they been able to see it, they would have realized that their opponent was not attacking by normal means, but by using bizarre, irregular methods.

Thud.

Stepping over the head of the tall man who had become a corpse and collapsed to the ground, the remaining Black thugs rushed at the Unnamed Righteous Hero.

“Uaaaaaah!”

Did they think that if they just shouted loudly enough, their opponent would obligingly fall? They charged forward like madmen, screaming at the top of their lungs.

Swish! Slash! Thud!

The same concise sounds that the Unnamed Righteous Hero’s sword had made earlier echoed through the area. The only difference was that this time, the sounds were produced by the Black thugs’ own weapons.

“W-we did it! We caught the Unnamed Righteous Hero!”

They were excited.

There was clearly a sensation in their hands, and in front of them stood someone wearing a mask. Weapons wielded and thrust by the Black thugs were embedded all over that man’s body. Blood was gushing out of the masked man’s body like a waterfall. With that level of blood loss, there was absolutely no way he could survive.

“D-did we kill him!?”

Someone among them said that. Most of those around agreed. However, one person with particularly sharp eyes noticed something different.

“N-no! Th-there’s a Black Snake Society mark on his shoulder!”

At that, the remaining Black thugs focused on the masked man’s shoulder.

Sure enough, through the torn sleeve of the masked man, a black snake tattoo could be seen. It was the initiation tattoo engraved when one first joined the Black Snake Society.

That meant,

“F-fuck!”

Without anyone needing to start it, curses burst from the mouths of the Black thugs. And those curses became their collective last words.

Srrk.

A gleaming flash of sword light swiftly swept across all of their necks.

Thud.

A thin crack suddenly appeared beneath the neck of the corpse they had thought was the Unnamed Righteous Hero. Soon, the space along that crack slowly spread open. And at last, the masked man’s head left his neck and went traveling to the floor.

Thududududuk....

At the same time, the heads of all the Black thugs also fell to the ground in the exact same manner.

Those who fell to the ground had been beheaded so instantaneously that life still clung to them. Their eyes were still trembling.

Rrrrrr.

The head of the masked man they had thought was the Unnamed Righteous Hero rolled into the very center where all of their heads lay. Perhaps because of the impact when it hit the ground, the mask on the masked man’s face had already come off.

That head, with its tongue slightly sticking out of its mouth, stared at them as if mocking them all. Even with their heads severed, the Black thugs recognized the masked man’s face.

It was a face they all knew well.

He was Kang Hae, their gang leader who guarded the entrance to Paradise Village, and the very man who had let out the first scream.

How....

All of them carried that question in their hearts as they met their end.

After hosting a gathering of heads, the Unnamed Righteous Hero quietly moved on toward his next target.