Chapter 159: Baekgi (2)
A thousand years ago.
Everyone was watching the former clan leader, who had once dominated through power, lie on his deathbed. Everyone around him had tears in their eyes at the sight of this once powerful man on the bed, vulnerable and gasping for air.
Baek Yong, the current leader, looked at his father.
“Father, do you have anything left to say?”
“Haa… Haa… look after the cult.”
“H… how can we not? I will make sure that our Pure Kick Clan will continue to flourish under me.”
He resembled his father to a great degree, but the bluntness in his eyes soon turned red. Who wouldn’t be sad when watching their father die?
Baekgi’s breathing gradually weakened, as he said to Baek Yong,
“Something… needs… to be… checked.”
“Huh?”
Baek Yong couldn’t understand it.
“Father. What are you saying—”
Before he could find out, Baekgi’s head fell to the side.
“Father!”
“Former Leader!”
Everyone in the family was shocked. The legendary leader of the Pure Kick Clan had pa.s.sed away.
And after his death, his funeral lasted 49 days, but on the 43rd day of the funeral:
Silence fell around. After waiting some time, someone approached the coffin behind the funeral, where the incense was lit. The man who approached the coffin pushed the lid aside.
Inside, the body of Baekgi lying lifelessly with a pale face.
Scc!
The intruder put something into his mouth, and something amazing happened. After the 43rd day of death, Baekgi woke up.
“Cough! Cough!”
Waking up with constant coughing, Baekgi tried to control his breathing. Calming down, he lifted him and looked at the man in the shadows.
“You are late, Seong Mu-chun.”
The man who brought him back from death was no other than Seong Mu-chun, the seer of the Sky Demon Order. To that, Seong Mu-chun smiled.
“Are you ready to die again?”
“Disgusting words.”
“Such words from one of the Six Swords. When you open your eyes, the world will be different. It will be entirely different from what it is now. if you plan on changing your mind, do it now.”
Despite that, Baekgi said.
“… If it means I can see my lord, it doesn’t matter.”
And the moment he came to his senses, he saw a familiar face in front of him. The hair was short and the clothes were different, but the face was the same as ever.
“Lord!”
“Baekgi.”
The two just looked at each other, each conveying their emotions. Their eyes were adept enough to see the other’s body state.
‘He is fine, that is all I need to know.’
Baekgi felt relieved that Chun Yeowun wasn’t hurt.
‘What is this?’
However, his body felt very strange, as on his body were various iron equipment, and as if a new dantian had been created, he felt a newfound energy emanating from the center of his chest.
“Don’t worry, measures were taken to prevent any harm to your body.”
Of course, Nano had prevented any bodily injuries.
“Ah!”
At those words, Baekgi felt relieved; he had confidence in Chun Yeowun’s skills since their time at the Academy.
Chun Yeowun would never lie to him.
“This place is so confusing,”
Baekgi looked around and said. This world was much different from what he imagined, from the clothes people wore to the shape of buildings.
‘d.a.m.n it!’
Chae Mun-tak couldn’t understand what was unfolding. Not only did his greatest prototype fall into Chun Yeowun’s hands, but all 24 of the 4th Gen models were taken down.
“I think it’ll be difficult to hold the auction for any longer.”
“Let’s go back.”
“If I stay here, my life will be in danger.”
The murmurs of people resonated throughout the ship, and Chae Mun-tak noticed people began leaving the dome.
As he was an idiot, he could recognize that the auction was ruined.
“Let’s take advantage of this chaos.”
“There might be goods under the deck.”
In addition to the people leaving, the East Asia Union was trying to break through the chaos to retake some of the auction items that were stolen by MS Group.
Crack!
Chae Mun-tak gritted his teeth. Because of one person — just one person — everything had become a mess.
‘Chun Mu-seong!’
He understood why such a man was cla.s.sified as dangerous.
Shh!
Suddenly, a man wearing a suit and mask appeared next to Chae Mun-tak.
“Senior, many of our guests are heading to the speedboats.”
This auction was held in the middle of the sea, and there was one way out.
“Cheol-ryeong, the items?”
“As you said, we transferred them in advance.”
“Good job.”
Chae Mun-tak sighed. Most of the auction items were moved in case of an emergency.
“Are you sure you want to stop the auction completely?’
“Yes.”
He knew that he couldn’t fight against Chun Yeowun and win. By now, Chun Yeowun too must have realized that MS Group was aiming for his life, and staying here would be dangerous.
“What about them?”
Cheol-ryeong looked at Chun Yeowun and Baekgi, who were still on the broken dome.
“They must be buried here.”
Cheol-ryeong asked again,
“Should we use that?”
“Use it. No matter how strong he is, do you think he"ll be able to deal with that monster in this sea at night?”
Hearing the confirmation, Chae Mun-tak hurried out of the dome, at which Chun Yeowun laughed.
“Quite a silly one you are.”
Chun Yeowun reached out, and a deep shiver pa.s.sed through Chae Mun-tak’s body as he tried to run away. It was then,
Papapak!
“Die!”
The escorts around the dome moved to Chun Yeowun at once. Each of them were Master level warriors, but there was no need for Chun Yeowun to even use his hands.
“Hmph!”
Baekgi raised his hand and pushed it down, causing the people moving toward them to fall down.
Pachik!
Kwakw.a.n.g!
“Kuak!”
“Ack!”
It was impossible for those who were weaker than him to withstand the pressure, when even the human weapons couldn’t. Meanwhile, Chae Mun-tak, who tried to escape, was dragged back.
“Senior researcher!”
The subordinate named Cheol-ryeong jumped and grabbed Chae Mun-tak’s body to stop it from being dragged.
‘What kind of power is this?’
Now, both of them were being dragged.
“Kuak!”
After a few moments, Cheol-ryeong let go of Chae Mun-tak; while it was definitely the right decision, the one left behind wouldn’t see it that way.
Pak!
“Ugh!”
“What a disloyal subordinate.”
Cheol-ryeong ran away from the dome without looking back, but Chun Yeowun didn’t mind as, after all, his purpose was to get his hands on an executive. Since he regained Baekgi as well, there were no more strong forces on the ship that could go against him.
“Let’s see your face.”
Pak!
Chun Yeowun took off Chae Mun-tak’s mask, revealing the face of a man with different eye colors. The person looked much more ordinary than he expected, and his face was full of fear.
“Eek!”
“You wanted to make a deal with me, but your actions didn’t match what you were saying.”
Chun Yeowun, who was speaking, frowned, as he felt something strange.
‘What is this?’
He already caught the man, but something felt off; the man looked fine, but didn’t seem to have any life.
“…What are you?”
“W-what are you doing!?”
Chun Yeowun narrowed his eyes, concentrating on the palm holding Chae Mun-tak’s neck.
The palm was definitely warm, but Chun Yeowun couldn’t feel any pulse coming from it.
Pak!
Chun Yeowun suddenly grabbed Chae Mun-tak’s right arm.
“W-why my arm—”
And then, without mercy, he tore it off.
Tear!
It should have been painful and scary, but Chae Mun-tak didn’t scream. On the contrary, it was Chun Yeowun whose expression changed.
“Ha!”
The result was shocking. When the arm was ripped off, a bunch of wires were disconnected within the arm.
Spark!
In addition, sparks were flying off. Chun Yeowun didn’t realize since the skin was made so elaborately, but he then figured that the body was a machine.
“What are you?”
At Chun Yeowun’s question, Chae Mun-tak erased his scared expression and spoke,
“I didn’t expect you to notice this was an avatar so quickly, but it’s already too late.”
“Avatar?”
Nano’s voice eased the confusion of Chun Yeowun.
[An avatar isn’t an actual body, but a separate one that a user controls. It isn’t a technology that should be available at the current time period.]
There was flesh surrounding the machine. Thus technology was originally developed for people with physical disabilities, and it was supposed to take a few more decades before a human-type android would become popular. This was a prime example of MS Group’s technological prowess.
“You"re a rat. You think I can’t catch you?”
At Chun Yeowun’s words, the avatar smiled.
“Hahahaha, it’s already too late for that.”
“What?”
“You see, the ship has already departed.”
Near the west side of the auction was a ship with all its lights shut off moving away. It was very different from the speedboat that the guests used.
On board, a man with a unique helmet could be seen. Using the goggles attached to the helmet, he looked at Chun Yeowun, who was clutching the avatar’s neck.
‘It"s a good thing I got the avatar from "F" recently and developed it.’
The technology wasn’t commercialized yet, and only a select few executives were given them in case of an emergency, but Chae Mun-tak never thought that it would be so useful as he grinned.
“Don’t tell me that you thought I would put myself in such an unreasonable situation?”
-You seemed to have thought this through.
“You’ll be buried in the sea soon.”
-Buried?
“Why do you think we held the auction in the middle of the sea?”
There were more than just one or two people who targeted the MS group, and governments were always trying to keep their eyes on them while others were trying to steal their technology.
In such situations, the auction could be selected and destroyed each time. As Chae Mun-tak stopped speaking, someone spoke to him.
“Cheol-ryeong has arrived.”
Pik!
A video feed appeared in the goggles, showing a black figure on a water scooter approaching the dark ship. Chae Mun-tak ordered,
“Release the Kraken.”
“The VIP guests haven’t left yet, are you sure it’ll be fine?”
A subordinate asked in concern. To be honest, Chae Mun-tak was just trying to stall for time, but didn’t think that Chun Yeowun would find out so quickly that he had been dealing with an avatar the whole time.
Urgently, Chae Mun-tak said,
“Release it.”
If it was that monster, the sea would become chaotic very soon. Chae Mun-tak judged that he had enough time to get to a safe distance away from it.
“Alright.”
Chae Mun-tak exhaled with a nervous face. This is the first time they unlocked the A-cla.s.s Alpha hazard ent.i.ty, ‘Kraken’.
The monster was given the name of the monster from the legends, which was known to be the largest predator of the sea due to its immense size.
‘At least a target can be signaled.’
If they sent a signal to Kraken, it would attack the auction house. A detector suddenly appeared on the goggles.
From the depth of the sea, a monster began to rise up quickly.
“I hope you can engrave your fear into the night sea.”
With that, Chae Mum-tak tried to turn off the helmet, but,
“Huh?”
Chun Yoeuwn, who was holding the avatar, suddenly turned elsewhere: to the western side of the auction house.
‘Idiot, it’s already too late. Have a long, hard fight with the Kraken…’
At that moment, he saw Chun Yeowun step towards the sea as an amazing phenomenon happened.
Jjkkk!
The sea water began freezing at a rapid rate around Chun Yeowun at an unimaginable speed.
“The sea is… freezing?”
Wook!
The entire ship shook violently.
“Ugh!”
Unable to keep the balance, Chae Mun-tak fell to the floor. Confused, he took off his helmet on his head and stood up.
“R-researcher, look outside!”
One of the crewmates then shouted.
At that, Chae Mun-tak looked outside. Seeing what was happening, his eyes trembled.
“W-what is this…”
The entire surface around the ship was frozen.
“No!”
At least 300 meters away from the auction house was the sound signifying that the whole sea within the distance was frozen.