Mercenary Black Mamba

"Lee Myung Soo, I came to see you," Ray-Ban called out Nam Myung Soo's nickname.

"Why're you calling me?"

Ray-Ban dragged Nam Myung Soo, who had answered bluntly, to the back of the warehouse.

"Myung Soo, brother Moray revised the plans. He wants us to open the package," Ray-Ban said in a very low voice.

There were times when smuggling organizations murdered guests to intercept and steal money. According to their business lingo, it was called "opening the package."

"What are you talking about when there's barely an hour left? You said I needed to take good care of our double-double customer!" Nam Myung Soo said out of frustration.

How could they change the delivery plans when everything was already prepared? He'd have to reorganize the members and decide whether the ship captain, who wasn't an organization member, should live or die. All the burden fell on him.

"It seemed like he'd take a lot." Go Dong Pal made a circle with his thumb and forefinger.

"Damn, he smelled the money."

Nam Myung Soo nodded. Smuggling ships weren't cruise ships, and smuggling organizations weren't government officials. They were doing that for the money. Kicking away such an opportunity because of a minor setback would make them fools.

"Members?"

"Flounder and Bullet Tuna are already onboard."

"What about Captain Kim?"

"This isn't your first time doing business. Seal his mouth."

Sealing one's mouth meant throwing them to the bottom of the sea. There was no need to see blood as long as they wrapped them in a net with weights attached and threw them into the sea. The rest was taken care of by the West Sea's crabs and greenlings.

"Are there no reinforcements?"

"F*** that! You don't need reinforcements to handle a one-armed elder and a b****. If you feel like it, you can take her instead." Go Dong Pal smiled and hit Nam Myung Soo's shoulder.

"Agh, damn it. I need to change the meeting point then. Let's move it to the end of the pier."

"Sure. Dae Gil can lead the way since he leaves a good impression. We can wait at the tetrapods by the pier and follow the guests."

"When's the tide?"

"There's one in the morning. Captain Kim's going to meet us next to the stairs where the pier is."

"Got it. You're going to visit the office, aren't you? Finish it off quickly, and we can have a good smoke afterward in the room."

At well past midnight, a black royale passenger car pulled up before the second warehouse of the seafood market. A man and woman got off. The man had a billycock pressed down on his head and was wearing a seven-layered Burberry coat, unfitting for the season. His empty left sleeve fluttered in the wind. The woman accompanying him had her face covered by a wide-brimmed cloche and a wide Ray-Ban. The man was carrying a 30-liter backpack, and the woman was dragging a large gold-plated carrier bag.

The strong wind lifted the man's billycock slightly.

Whoosh—

His injured right hand crossed the air at lightspeed. The billycock returned to its place. His dull grayish white hair and wrinkled face briefly showed before they were sucked in by the hat. The man was already in his later years despite his solid physique, which was like the stump of a birch tree.

"Tai kutsu desu!"[1]

The old-looking man took out an elegant pocket watch from his right pocket. It was five minutes before their promised time. The man tucked the fluttering left sleeve into his belt. Those were extremely refined movements. Even the sound of rustling clothes could not be heard.

At 0100 on the dot, Lee Dae Gil appeared.

"Sensei, konbanwa!"

The old man didn't react, and the woman only tilted her head. Lee Dae Gil's job was to lead people. He instantly recognized the man's clothes based on the description. The light-footed man with graying hair, a soulless and expressionless face full of fine lines, and an upright posture—it was hard to tell that he was in his 60s.

Lee Dae Gil could remember the unique features of his guests as though he had taken pictures of them. That was why he'd been tasked to greet and lead guests around for five years. He'd seen all kinds of people since then, and several left poor first impressions. Today's guests were exceptional in comparison.

The large scar that went slightly past his throat, the empty sleeve fluttering in the wind, and his gaunt and sharp face—all of that indicated the kind of life the man led. While first impressions weren't a big deal to him, the man's red lips kept drawing his attention. They were red to the point that it was doubtful whether the man had put on rouge.

The old man looks like someone who'd be the grim reaper in movies. Lee Dae Gil complained secretly in his mind.

His face covered with fine lines was hard as a rock. Only his red lips stood out from his white face. Lee Dae Gil felt his mood worsened. The old man, who was about to greet the grim reaper, looked like the grim reaper himself.

The man's eye flashed. Lee Dae Gil flinched. Lee Dae Gil clearly felt a flashing gaze despite the pressed-down hat covering the man's eyes.

Lee Dae Gil hurriedly turned his gaze to the woman. The woman seemed to love black. She was wearing a black hat, a black Ray-Ban, black clothes, black boots, black gloves, and even black earrings.

"Su-mima-sen!"

When Lee Dae Gil waved his hands, the woman took off her hat and Ray-Ban. That was the signal for delivery confirmation.

F***, this woman's appearance is a weapon too.

Lee Dae Gil regretted checking the package at all. Eyes that were as narrow as buttonholes with the ends arched up, thin lips, and a slightly crooked nose—all of that were stereotypical features of a wicked face. Her eyes were also cold, as though she had shoved ice in them.

"Are we not going?"

An iron grating noise, as though a gourd was pushed against a chalkboard, flowed haltingly out of the old man's mouth. It was the kind of sound that would appear in the TV program "Hometown Legends."

Lee Dae Gil nodded and led the way. There were 20-ton crab fishing boats lined at the end of the pier, swaying gently with the flow. A faint line crossed over the face of the one-armed old man, Sai Dojiku (Chui Do Shik), as he faced the boats.

Sai Dojiku, whose Korean name was Chui Do Shik, was a psychopath who considered himself as an ascended person [2], and the very person who had kidnapped Mu Ssang while he was fighting a snake. Sai's real identity was a ninja and Higashi Hongan-ji's greatest soldier. He was an elite doctor who had graduated from the University of Tokyo's medical school and also an acupuncture master. Ironically, he was also the Baek-Baek (white-white) religion's cult leader, who was done in by his own ninja skill, becoming one with nature.

Sai was attacked by Mu Ssang, who had escaped the stalactite cave. His neck was stabbed with a stalactite, his dantian ruined by a surgical knife, and he suffered a critical injury after his left arm was hacked off with an ax.

Sai, who had fled in desperation, managed his internal and external injuries with the Dark Soul-Returning Method in the Baek-Baek religion's secret room. The day he left that secret room, the doctors and nurses, whom the Baek-Baek religion cult followers had kidnapped to help their leader, entered the feed grinder.

He'd managed to treat his internal and external injuries by using his life force, but there was nothing he could do about his shattered airway. He couldn't pronounce words properly anymore because of the artificial airway.

Chui Do Shik led an unfortunate life too. He was abandoned by Jiri mountain's stream less than 100 days after he was born. Rather, his mom had starved to death, which explained why he was abandoned. Takahashi, a Japanese monk, came across the dying baby and ended up raising him.

Takahashi was an elder of the Ōtani-Ryu who had enemies in Higashi Hongan-ji. He was on the way back from visiting Cheoneun-sa (temple) in Jiri mountain when he unexpectedly found the abandoned Chui Do Shik.

Higashi Hongan-ji was a Jōdo Shinshū derived from Hongan-ji, established in 1244 during the shogunate period. In 1602, Tokugawa Ieyasu asked a monk named Kyonyo of Hongan-ji to train ninjas.

Hongan-ji was divided into Higashi Hongan-ji and Nishi Hongan-ji while Kyonyo was given a separate temple and land east of Hongan-ji. Higashi Hongan-ji became the headquarters of the Shinsengumi toward the end of the Edo shogunate and the main training center for rōnins [3] and ninjas. The tradition was passed on, and the line of ninja training continued under the name of Ōtani-ha.

Some said ninjas were samurais' dogs. That was false. Ninjas were but a category of martial arts. Samurais were comparable to Korean nobility. The difference between samurais and yang-bans [4] was like swords and smoking pipes. Samurais ran around the battlefields with swords in hand, while the Joseon sa-dae-bu [5] ran around debating with smoking pipes in hand.

Although most of the soldiers who had appeared during the shogunate period were samurais, some had started out as ninjas. In other words, the word "samurai" referred to a rank, and the word "ninja" referred to a category of martial arts. Both were interchangeable.

Due to the nature of a ninja, many were required to start training at a young age. It was difficult to train someone over the age of 15 because their musculoskeletal system would be stiff by then. No sane parent would send their child to a ninja organization notorious for its inhumane training.

Higashi Hongan-ji recruited trainees by kidnapping children, taking in orphans, or buying children from poor parents. It was natural for Takahashi to take in Chui Do Shik. Takahashi was extremely satisfied after verifying Chui Do Shik's exceptional musculoskeletal system. He adopted Chui Do Shik and raised him as a ninja.

Takahashi, who was far-right, raised Chui Do Shik with the long-term plan of constructing Higashi Hongan-ji's partner organization in Korea. According to his plans, Chui Do Shik was raised as a Korean and not a Japanese, and he received the Korean name "Chui Do Shik" too.

Chui Do Shik, who was trained and educated to suppress humanity since his youth, began showing psychopathic tendencies. He came to hate Korea and his parents, who had abandoned him and showed significant hostility toward others. It was exactly as Takahashi had intended.

Chui Do Shik was smart and cunning. Like a sponge, he absorbed ninja techniques, acupuncture, spiritism, and general education from Takahashi and the other elders. All the elders of Higashi Hongan-ji had utilized all of their resources to raise Sai Dojiku.

Higashi Hongan-ji was a leading suzerain of the far-right faction in Japan that played a leading role in the Japanese imperial invasion of Joseon, centered in Busan's Pogyowon since Joseon's enlightenment period. After Takahashi died, Chui Do Shik infiltrated Busan in his early 30s under the secret order of Higashi Hongan-ji.

Chui Do Shik had formed the Baek-Baek religion with the attributes of the Jōdo Shinshū in Busan. The Baek-Baek religion's foundation was based on Christian eschatology and the Confucianism belief that human nature was originally evil. With a touch of Buddhism, it became a syncretic religious cult.

The central doctrine of the Baek-Baek religion was a new theory of unity that was a mismatch of Jewish selections—humans were fundamentally born evil. Like most cults, the Baek-Baek religion also focused on the deification of their leader, exploiting wealth, and causing social chaos.

At one time, the Baek-Baek religion was widespread across Busan and Gimhae with over 10,000 passionate followers. The only reason for Chui Do Shik's decline in popularity was because of the revolutionary government's policy to eliminate social disorders by the social division. The revolutionary government was eager to eliminate all cults.

Chui Do Shik organized his wealth and set out to flee once the government tracked him down. He ended up settling in Bang Tae San. The reason why he had settled in Bang Tae San was that he wanted to commence the 1,000-men upbringing project, which would become 1,000 men's sword and bat. If the CIA built their experiment labs in Area 51, Chui Do Shik built his in Bang Tae San.

Chui Do Shik had raised Mu Ssang to be the leader of said 1,000 men. Chui Do Shik ended up losing everything because Mu Ssang had overcome the hypnosis and escaped the cave. He was also fatally injured and lost all five of his supernormal humans. The 1,000,000s of yen he hid were burnt, and he barely salvaged the gold buried underground.

Mu Ssang was tormented, chained, and forced under all kinds of physical experimentations in the dark cave for seven months. He was tormented with the All-Torture and the Soul-Renewing Practice. He ended up murdering someone. For Sai, he'd been betrayed by someone whom he had acknowledged as his successor and shown favor to. Number 37 was a traitor who had bitten his own master, ruining everything he had prepared his entire life. The two became arch-enemies because of their respective circumstances and sense of justice.

Sai Dojiku headed several steps toward the pier and turned around. Both of his eyes lit up in blue. He was about to leave the land he'd spent 30 years living on. He couldn't help but feel nostalgic. Although it was a land where idiots lived, he'd grown fond of it.

"Konno yarou, koroshite shimau." [6]

The reason for leaving Korea as though he was being chased was mainly because of Number 37. He automatically gritted his teeth. He'd shown him all kinds of favor, but like all the dirty idiots in the country, he'd betrayed him. He'd spent a year searching for the b*stard's whereabouts after recovering but gained nothing. It was because his organization within Korea had collapsed.

His body still hadn't recovered completely. He'd only recovered 70 percent of his ability. That wasn't achievable even if he had utilized his life force and the Dark Soul-Returning Method. His body became a stumbling block after the age of 60. The only way was to return to headquarters and stimulate his cells with the Extreme Regeneration Activation Method.

He'd tried to enter Japan secretly through Busan and Chungmu three times but failed. The coast guards watching over the south coast were like a dense spider web. Smuggling himself into China was his next best option. Several people working in unit 731 in Qingdao were Higashi Hongan-ji's entry-level members in disguise. He was planning to return to the headquarters with their help.

"Oi, lower the plank. Our guests have arrived!" Lee Dae Gil shouted.

"Dae Gil, lower down your voice. We're not heading out to catch fish.

A bearded man standing on the boat complained as he extended an unloading board on the side.

"Please, get on."

Lee Dae Gil's service mindset activated. He grabbed the carrier bag that the woman dragged along with her.

"Ugh! What is this?"

Lee Dae Gil was surprised. The carrier bag that the woman had been dragging around lightly didn't even budge. His shoulders nearly popped out. It wouldn't be that heavy even if he had filled it with several iron balls.

"Sore-wa sawaru na!" [7]

The one-armed old man shoved Lee Dae Gil's hand away.

"What?"

Lee Dae Gil's eyes widened.

The old man lifted the carrier bag with ease and crossed the board. It seemed as though he was carrying a bag of clothes. The expressionless woman followed behind him. Lee Dae Gil would have frothed at the mouth had he seen the motionless board. However, even with the eyes of a gang member, he couldn't see it.

[1] "I'm bored!"

[2] An inhabitant of the heavenly realms characterized by long life, joyous surroundings, and blissful states of mind. However, these states are not permanent.

[3] A rōnin was a samurai without a lord or master during the feudal period of Japan.

[4] They were part of the traditional ruling class or gentry of dynastic Korea during the Joseon Dynasty, mainly composed of civil servants and military officers.

[5] A collective name of scholars serving as government officials and prestigious scholars in the society.

[6] "B****rd, I'll kill you."

[7] "Don't touch that!"