21st Century Archmage

Translator: Lei

Proofreader: Enigami

‘Oho, quite the impressive security.’

The destination of the car I got into was the highlight of Hong Kong, Victoria Harbour. Docked far in the distance was a massive super luxury cruise ship.

“Master, the Group’s Security Force is on standby. They are awaiting your orders.”

‘Security Force? What’s that?’

I hadn’t heard about its existence from Marisol.

“Are they trustworthy?” I asked.

“Of course. They are all cream of the crop individuals carefully selected from special forces of countries all over the world. The 50 troops currently on standby in Hong Kong can easily wipe out the likes of the Triad in a matter of moments.”

The man in sunglasses was called Michael. He didn’t have any traces of mana in him, but the well-trained muscles on his body were proof that he hadn’t lived his life eating from a silver spoon.

“No. Have them stay on standby here.”

Kerchunk.

“Master, it will be dangerous on your own.”

I smiled at the man who was worrying about me.

“Have a nice nap here. Sleeping.”

My abilities could not be shown even to employees of the Magician Group. I used a spell to casually put Michael to sleep.

“Invisibility!”

Another spell incantation followed directly afterwards. There was a brief flash of magic at one side of the steadily darkening harbor. But that was the only sign of what was to come before my body became completely transparent.

‘Chang Li, I hope you know you’ll be shitting blood today.’

Chang Li, the man who took out his resentment towards Master on me. In the name of the Kang family, I could never forgive him.

* * *

“This year, our Shanghai black society was able to produce twice the results of last year. We raked in the ownerless money scattered in the real estate boom into trustworthy companies. Our members have also expanded from 1,100 to nearly 2,000 people, and we are also paying special attention to various high-ranking government officials, including the Secretary General. In addition, we intend to pay 100,000,000 yuan (~$15,000,000) in syndicate dues this year.”

The leader of the Shanghai black society, Boss Tang Jinping, concluded his brief report of the company affairs with an air of pride. Their economic power was even greater than mainland Beijing’s. With that increase in power, followed an exponential increase in the gangs’ profit.

“Well done, Boss Tang Jinping.”

One of the three Dragon Heads leading the Triad, Chang Li, directed a satisfied smile at the proudly reporting Tang Jinping. The Triad was descended from the Heaven and Earth Society that flew the banner of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom that rebelled against the Qing dynasty. Because new gangs on the Asian continent considered it an honor to become a part of the Triad and its long-standing history, most of the mainland gangs registered as members of the Triad within the last twenty years. The syndicate held one or two meetings every year, and paying their dues while bragging about their achievements was considered the ultimate bliss.

‘These fucking morons.’

With the Shanghai black society, the reports for the last year were concluded. The 100 or so bosses of each organization gathered here paid a total of 5 billion yuan simply in dues. It was a tremendous amount of money for regular folk, but it wasn’t much money for these movers of China’s underground world.

However, more important than money was the harmony between the organizations. The Triad used them to extract as much profit for itself as possible. A few crime-groups disappear every year, no matter their size, and in ten years, at least half of the people here would either betray the syndicate or be arrested by the authorities. However, the Triad’s roots weren’t shaken so easily.

“No matter the job, please leave it to us. Our Shanghai black society will follow the Triad’s orders with our very lives.”

“Thank you, Boss Tang.”

Even among the three Dragon Heads leading the Triad, Chang Li had ascended to the highest position. The other two Dragon Heads simply sat quietly next to him, overpowered.

“In the future, the world will come under the rule of our Great China, like it was with the Yuan dynasty that once ruled the world. And then, the Earth’s underworld will come into the hands of us brothers, who will form the foundation of all places shadowed in darkness. Keep that in mind and continue to support your brothers both materially and morally in the expansion of our influence carried out using the Chinatowns being constructed or have already been constructed all over the world, including Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia.”

The gangs were not as stupid as before. As descendants of the Heaven and Earth Society that survived for hundreds of years under the banner of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Triad was metastasizing like a cancer in the dark shadows of the world.

“A simple banquet has been prepared for after the meeting. Let us drink and enjoy ourselves as much as we want for just one day before working hard for another year.”

The meeting was wrapping up nicely. Chang Li called it a simple banquet, but the banquet today was being serviced by female celebrities who were called the pearls of Asia. Not only that, but all sorts of things were prepared within the cruise ship for their pleasure. This banquet was so addicting that the bosses regularly proposed having the meetings on a quarterly basis.

‘Things wrapped up nicely. Huhuhu.’

Chang Li felt the uneasiness that had plagued him ever since his glass shattered prior to coming here dissipate without a trace.

“Well then, let us conclude the meeting here. If any bosses have complaints or objections to the meeting, please bring them up now.”

It was just a formality for concluding the meeting. The number of people who issued any complaints so far could be counted on one hand, and those people would soon silently disappear within the year. Chang Li swept his eyes through the conference room with a content smile. Not a single person raised an objection, and most of them looked as though they wanted to hurry and get to the banquet of pleasure.

“In that case, I hereby ad—”

“Hold it! I have an objection.”

“….!!”

A loud voice interrupted Chang Li before he could adjourn the meeting. The conference room instantly tensed. The bosses whipped their heads around, looking for the brazen man who destroyed the mood.

“Who has an objection to raise?” Chang Li said, his voice low and his face hard.

The faces of the bosses instantly grew stiff. Chang Li, the Rabid Dog of Murder, the true master of the Triad, was known to have once beat dozens of rebelling members to death on his own. He was vicious and strong. The palpable bloodthirst he was exuding pricked their skin.

“…”

The conference room was pin-drop silent. No one opened their mouths.

“Are you playing a joke with me right now?”

Chang Li’s anger was as cold as his expression. He glanced at the bosses, his gaze sharp.

The same voice rang out again. “Do you think this is a joke? You little wuss.”

“WHO IS IT! WHO DARES!”

Unable to suppress his nasty temperament, Chang Li jumped out of his leather chair with a furious shout. But not a single person stepped forward. In fact, he couldn’t even figure out where the voice was coming from.

“Kneel, fucker!”

Bam! Craaash.

“Gugh…!”

Chang Li felt a heavy impact strike the back of his head, instantly sending him skidding across the ground. The moment he was sent flying with a scream, Chang Li pulled out the sword at his bosom.

“Wh-Who is it?!”

The shocked bosses hurried to their feet, drawing the weapons they were carrying.

“Puhahaha! What do you think you can do with a sashimi knife like that?”

The invisible enemy laughed and clapped with mirth in front of the bosses controlling the continent of Asia.

“What?!”

“Wh-What the hell?!”

Someone suddenly appeared, calmly relaxing on the black leather chair Chang Li had been sitting on. The youth who didn’t even look like he was in his twenties yet was scornfully gazing at the continent’s gang bosses without a hint of fear.

And then, he dropped a bombshell statement. “Goodness, you dogs sure are noisy.”

With authentic mainland Beijing pronunciation, the crazy bastard cursed the bosses as dogs.

“KILL HIM!”

“THIS BASTARD!”

The man had taken Chang Li’s seat without the Triad Dragon Heads next to him noticing. The nearby bosses came charging in with hand axes and all sorts of deadly weapons, including fileting knives.

“Looks like you bastards are seeking an early death,” echoed the man’s cold voice in their ears.

Flash!

A flash of blinding light suddenly filled the room, so bright that all of the people running in found themselves closing their eyes.

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bam!

“GAAAAAGH!”

“Gugh!”

A series of heavy impacts and piercing screams followed. Once the eyes recovered from the flash, the bosses hastened to figure out what was happening.

“What…!”

“H-How can that be…!”

Their jaws dropped open. In the blink of an eye, the five bosses who had charged the crazy intruder were laying on the ground, their bodies so broken that they couldn’t even move properly.

“Y-You are…!”

After getting up and seeing the familiar face of the intruder, Chang Li shouted in alarm.

Translator: Lei

Proofreader: Imagine

* * *

‘How is he here?!’

Everything had happened so suddenly, so Chang Li had a hard time getting his bearings. But because he had overcome countless crises over the decades, he was able to collect his wits.

‘M-Magic.’

The answer was clear. The area surrounding the cruise ship docked in the Victoria Harbour was being guarded by about 500 heavily armed syndicate members. The Chinese military commander and the head of public security, as well as most of the high-ranking men in power had received bribes from the Triad and were secretly standing guard in the vicinity. But the disciple of the crazy old man had snuck in like a ghost. That meant magic was involved, and the man was a mage capable of advanced magic like Invisibility.

‘I should have ended his life once and for all back then.’

As Chang Li ground his teeth and lamented his failure to kill this man named Kang Hyuk when he had the chance, he felt his heart race. If Kang Hyuk really was an upper circle mage, none of the goons here would be of any help.

‘I’ll retreat.’

He made his decision quickly. It was cowardly, but he couldn’t die here to that bastard.

“He’s only one person! Everyone, attack!”

Chang Li gave an order to the bosses who were trembling in fear at the bastard’s skills like idiots. Then, he poured mana into the dagger in his hand and hurled it before racing towards the exit, trusting the keen sense of danger that had brought him to his current position.

* * *

‘You laughable fool.’

Chang Li quickly realized his place and turned to flee. But that was just his own fanciful dream.

“Lock!”

I casually cast an incantation on the door, which was already rigged with Silence.

Zing!

The two doors leading into the conference room flashed with blue light.

Clink!

The mana-imbued knife Chang Li had tossed fell powerlessly to the ground after colliding with my Auto Shield.

Kerchunk.

In the meantime, Chang Li reached the doors and was straining to open them.

“My friends, just look at that guy. He ordered you to attack before running away to save his own skin.”

The bosses all turned in unison to stare at Chang Li, who was going red in the face trying to open the doors.

“Th-That is…”

Stopping his futile effort and turning his head at my words, Chang Li’s face quickly blanched under the looks of doubt and rage piercing him.

“Wow, what a completely rotten egg. How could he abandon his brothers, who live and die by loyalty, and try to run away on his own? If it were me, I wouldn’t be satisfied even after hitting him a hundred thousand times.”

Sitting on the leather chair, I gently turned the bosses and Chang Li against each other. With every word I spoke, the looks the bosses directed at Chang Li became more and more menacing.

“Who are you?”

Just then, the elderly Triad boss sitting in the leather chair next to me asked me to identify myself.

“Me? An emperor. The Emperor of the Great Nerman Empire.” I calmly told him the truth.

“I don’t know how you came in here… but I’ll have to kill you.”

Unlike Chang Li, these two old men still hadn’t realized their place.

‘Well whaddya know? I can feel mana.’

The two old men flanking me got up, their eyes fixed on me. I sensed low-ranking knight level mana from their bodies.

“That so? Then give it a shot. Here, get me right here.”

I got up, pulling up my clothes to bare my beautifully muscled lower abdomen, where the silvery scar Chang Li had left was still faintly visible.

“Crazy bastard.”

Whoosh!

A white-haired, short old man standing about three meters away came at me, swinging his 20 cm blade.

‘You’re the crazy one. Huhuhu.’

This gangster dog was fearlessly running at a 9th Circle archmage.

Claaang!

The clang of steel rang out, accompanied by the man’s shocked cry.

“You done?”

His eyes filled with fear.

“My turn.”

My lips curled into a wide smile, and my fist went straight for the face of the gangster who was still frozen in a stabbing position in front of me.

Pow!

His jaw caved in as he fell over with a strangled scream.

Swish! CRACK!

And then, my right leg shot out, landing on his chin.

The man flew a good 5 meters before smashing into the wall and slumping to the ground. There was neither scream nor movement from him. But I didn’t feel a shred of pity for him. Excising these human parasites would pose no problems for the world. In fact, killing them would be helpful for world peace and the unification of Korea (though that was a stretch).

“Well then, shall we begin? The game to see which of you dogs can last the longest.”

Crack crack.

As people who made a living with their fists, everyone here knew that I was someone they were absolutely helpless towards. The way their faces darkened was quite a scene to witness.

* * *

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bam.

“GAAAAAGH!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAGHH!”

Chaos was reigning inside the conference room, but there was no sign of human life outside the door.

“Nnghhh…”

As he watched all 100 plus bosses be taken down by magic, Chang Li was on the verge of going mad. Like a real disciple of that insane old man, Kang Hyuk had zero mercy. Getting blown to pieces by Magic Missile was actually something to rejoice over. Some took a Wind Spear to their bellies and vomited blood and food they’d eaten several days past, some were struck by Air Ball and their faces swelled like balloons, and some were hit by lightning magic and convulsed for minutes on end before falling unconscious, frothing at the mouth. Not a single person was unharmed from the bastard’s attacks.

After a dizzying round of sizzling, electrifying, and beating, the conference room fell silent. The smell of burning meat filled the room.

“Clear.”

That led Kang Hyuk to purify the air with a carefree Clear.

‘H-He’s an upper-circle mage.’

Chang Li was at the 4th Circle, but he only knew spells up to the 3rd Circle. He was unable to get a single inkling of how high this Kang Hyuk had ascended. His only thought was that he was extremely unlikely to survive the day and see the sun rise again tomorrow.

“You assholes, fucking around like you’re all that when you’re all weak as fuck.” The inscrutable youth dusted off his hands, his mouth as coarse as ever despite the good-natured smile on his lips. “Looks like it’s just the two of us now, Brother.”

Chang Li trembled uncontrollably. He had killed more than a few people in his life, but this man’s viciousness and ease of killing was leagues above him. In every single aspect, Chang Li was no match for him.

Thump.

“S-Spare me! No, p-please spare me, sir! If you forgive me just this once, I will never do anything bad ever again! Sir! Please find it in your heart to forgive the pitiful me!”

Strength was not the only tool he used in his journey to reach the top of the Triad. When his opponent was strong, he acted subservient enough to lick the other’s feet. When he begged to be spared by his mage master in the past, he kowtowed so heavily that his forehead cracked and bled. This wasn’t his first time, so he had no reservations in kneeling. He only felt the desire to survive this crisis and retain his life.

“Oh, giving up already? C’mon, that’s no fun. Think back to when you put a pretty hole in my belly. A man shouldn’t kneel so easily. And to think that you’re the boss of the Big Bad Triad. Huhuhu.”

Chang Li had lowered his head, but the bastard only continued to heckle.

‘Damnable bastard. I will surely get revenge for this humiliation…’ Chang Li thought, inwardly enduring the indignity.

Kang Hyuk approached. That moment, Chang Li’s right hand closed over the pistol someone had dropped in the shadow of the table.

‘No matter how many circles he has…’

Chang Li didn’t believe for a moment that Kang Hyuk would let him off. He was torn with indecision. If Kang Hyuk didn’t forgive him, all he had to do was kill the bastard.

“Brother Chang Li, get up already. A man should take a hit standing up, at least.”

Kang Hyuk came closer.

‘DIE!’

Sweeping aside his indecision, Chang Li grabbed the pistol and pulled the trigger at the bastard’s lower belly.

Bang!

The gunfire rattled his eardrums, and he heard a cry.

“Gugh!”

“Huhuhu…” Chang Li burst into satisfied laughter upon seeing Kang Hyuk curl up, clutching his stomach. “You rookie. You dared to believe that your measly magic would—”

The gloating words died in his throat.

Why? Because the bastard in front of him was smiling like nothing happened even after getting hit with a bullet.

“Kukuku. How’s my acting? I totally got ya, right?”

As Kang Hyuk spoke, he slowly unfurled the right hand that was clutching his stomach.

“What…!”

To Chang Li’s shock, inside that palm was a crushed bullet.

“And that’s it for your last-ditch effort, I suppose. Well then, let’s get started. Over the last few years, I’ve come up with 108 different kinds of magic torture just for you. Kukuku.”

Clunk.

The gun fell to the ground.

And then, it began.

The 108 kinds of magic torture the former Triad Dragon Head Chang Li could never forget even in death began with a bang.

* * *

I stared down at the man who was no use to human society even if he lived. My final gift for him, a poison spell, pervaded his muscles and melted down the cells of all of his major locomotion muscles.

‘I can’t bring myself to kill him.’

I might have killed countless enemies during battle on the Kallian Continent, but I had never killed anyone who didn’t attack me. I never had the viciousness in me to kill the completely defenseless Chang Li to begin with… For I was even more vicious.

“This is an even more cruel punishment than death for you.”

Because all the muscles that enabled movement were melted down, he could no longer live without someone’s assistance. He could not walk with his own two feet or raise his own two hands. He lay there drooling, having become a living vegetable. It paled in comparison to the evil he’d done, but I didn’t feel that happy looking at him.

“Euuurgh…”

“Ahhhhh! S-Someone save me!”

I cast my gaze towards the trash gangsters who were wavering on the verge of life and death from my magic beating. Killing them wouldn’t make all the trash in the world instantly disappear, so I couldn’t reduce them to the same fate as Chang Li. Even without these guys, the world would continue spinning, and China’s organized crime would continue to strut around like nothing happened anyway.

“Great Heal!”

Large AOE heal magic descended on the conference room.

Flaaaash!

The yellow light symbolizing life energy flashed, healing all the prone people besides Chang Li.

“!!”

“Ahh…”

Upon experiencing their first ever taste of healing magic, gasps of amazement replaced cries of agony.

“Everyone, on your feet!”

In the midst of those gasps, came my shout.

“…”

They already knew all their wounds were healed, but everyone glanced uneasily at each other with no intent to get up.

“If you don’t get up when I count to three, I’ll make it so you’ll eat for the rest of your sorry lives through a feeding tube. One… Two…”

As soon as I finished talking, the Chinese gangsters jumped to their feet like their asses had never been splayed on the ground. From the way they dodged my eyes even after springing up, I could tell that my mental education had worked very well.

‘Seriously, there’s no better teaching method than a good beating.’

There were people who would listen with respectful words between men and people who would only listen after a beating. Especially for guys like these who made a living with their fists, there was no faster training method than beating the agony into their very bones. It was a very well known fact that people who relished the pain of others were even greater wimps to their own pain.

“Listen up. Your hyung is a little busy, so don’t show up in front of me ever again. Collect your fellow siblings holed up in places like Korea’s Chinatown while I’m being nice. If I ever hear a rumor that any gangsters are running amok, I’ll bury that organization that very day under the Great Wall of China.”

“…”

No one could respond.

“Do you have fucking stir fry noodles up your ears?! Do you understand, or do you not understand?”

I glared at them, my voice tinged with irritation.

“U-UNDERSTOOD!!!” they shouted, their voices loud enough to shake the conference room.

‘The Chinese gangsters will lay low for the time being.’

I didn’t know how long that would last, but Korea would experience peace and quiet for a while.

“Good, I’ll trust you this one time.” I nodded with a satisfied smile. “I’m busy, so Hyungnim is heading out first. I heard there’s some fun in store for you, so go enjoy yourselves or whatever.”

My true objective was finished, so there was no reason to stay in the same place as these nauseating carbon dioxide breathers. I walked towards the door.

The Lock spell automatically dispelled with a click as soon as I approached. But before I left, I turned around with a scowl.

“I let you live and you’re not even saying goodbye, you rude little bastards…”

The gangsters instantly bent 90 degrees at the waist and saw me off. “Dàgē! Please have a good trip!”

“Huhuhu…”

I opened the door and left with an evil laugh. These guys would probably be frozen in a daze for quite a while even after I left.

I prayed in my heart that they would put a rest to increasing their area of influence and would just grow in their own countries like the parasites they were.