Mercenary Black Mamba

"It, it can't be!'

Nupchi, a former member of the personal guards to the Sashimi Gang, stammered in shock. His eyes widened and started to drool unconsciously. The slender frame, the seemingly warm face, kind-looking eyes, eyebrows dark like the night, and the most damning evidence of them all - the faint scar left on his left cheek. This person in front of him was the nightmare that destroyed his organization 5 years ago.

Another nickname for the nightmare was the Three Abstentions. You shall abstain from encountering him, you shall abstain from looking at him, you shall abstain from crossing him.

He had just violated all three decrees by encountering, looking, and crossing the Three Abstentions. Nupchi was overwhelmed with extreme fear. He broke out in cold sweats and his teeth started knocking together.

"You, you're the nightmare-"

Bam- The tent pole fell on the top of his head.

"Aak!"

Nupchi groaned, covering his head. He never expected he'd ever see the Three Abstentions nightmare again. But the world was small and his luck had run out.

"Shut your mouth!"

Nupchi's eardrums took a heavy blow from a terrifying growl like that of a tiger's.

"Uhp!"

Nupchi sealed his mouth like a clam. The intense pain was a vivid reminder of what happened 5 years ago. The Sashimi Gang, who had claimed profitable areas like the Donsung Way, Daegu Station, and the Northgate Market as their own, may not have been one of the main gangs but was as influential as those main national gangs such as the Northside Gang, Yangeun's Gang and the Donjae Gang.

His boss, originally from the Yakuza, had a godly sword-fighting ability, and Nupchi himself was only barely able to be a part of the 22 personal guards even with his background as a national amateur wrestling champion and a 4th dan black belt in judo.

They all jeered at the little country bumpkin girl when she said, 'You called Oppa, huh? You're all in big trouble. Even the legendary fighter, the Lynx, shouldn't have been able to handle dozens of swordsmen in that narrow alleyway.

The price they paid for kidnapping the oddly fearless little girl was disastrous. To think that the Oppa that little girl mentioned was the nightmare! The day that the nightmare visited the flower garden hideout was engraved in his memory. She was incapacitated in a single blow and was forced to witness the onslaught that followed.

Their efforts in taking a hostage and preparing weapons were in vain. How were they expected to deal with something that flew around like a ghost and blasted through concrete walls with bare hands! Their boss, the 22 personal guards, and 30 footsoldiers were laid out in 20 minutes flat.

On that day that came to be called the 'flower garden massacre' in the criminal world, the entire elite members of the Sashimi Gang became disabled for life for kidnapping a single little girl.

Two of his colleagues from the personal guards were still crawling around the Seven Star Market begging for scraps. They had their spines shattered for hitting that little girl on the cheek. Nupchi felt his broken ribs with his hand. The same ribs that caved in with a single kick 5 years ago.

'Damned bitch!'

Mu Ssang raised his eyebrows in anger. The ones responsible for having the Sashimi Gang kidnap Jinsoon were Jangpilnyeo and Hwaja. He tried to take him down using Jinsoon as bait. Had he arrived just a little bit late Jinsoon would have suffered a terrible outcome. He would have ripped Jangpilnyeo and Hwaja apart a long time ago if it wasn't for the fact that they were family.

Bam- Mu Ssang flicked Nupchi on his forehead.

"Aak!"

Tears ran down his face as Nupchi put his hands on his forehead. Surely this was an impact from a hammer. There was no way that this was from a human's finger. A pain akin to having his head split open ensued.

"You falling asleep, you son of a bitch? You're the fatty that was guarding the storage entrance right?"

"Yes, yes, that's right."

Nupchi put his head down. Cold sweats broke out from his forehead. One wrong move and he'd be the one forced to crawl around the marketplace.

"You bitch. Looks like you still haven't come to your senses after all that. What's your name? I'll personally write it on your tombstone."

Nupchi's vision became disoriented. His usually dark face turned ghastly pale. The nightmare in front of him was the same person who broke his boss's bones one by one without saying a single thing.

"Hyungnim, spare me. I didn't do anything bad since that day and became a hard worker at Samshik Services. Just ask anyone. They'll tell you about a certain earnest section chief named Particus. I swear."

Nupchi slammed his head on the ground and begged for mercy. He could still see his boss who lived like an octopus without bones before committing suicide. He wanted nothing more than to run away, but his chances were dismal against the nightmare.

"Fufufu, his name is Farticus."

"Hey, that's so childish to make fun of someone's name like that. Fufufu, it is a bit funny though."

"Look at that ass. It's like a rice cake! Probably why he's so Farticus."

"Come on girl, don't be like that. I feel bad for him."

The girls laughed at him mockingly. Nupchi was well over 100kg. It was hard not to laugh at his bear-like stature with a name like Particus. Their fear of gangs was long gone from witnessing the majesty of the Darth Vader.

'Those damned bitches, should've ripped them in half.'

Nupchi clenched his jaws. He wanted to shred those big mouths apart and eat them for breakfast but it was more likely that he would be ripped apart long before then.

"What happened to the Sashimi Gang?"

"They all retired except me. Those who couldn't go back home are herding pigs in Weolbae and Sashimi hyungnim drank cyanide with coke. I became a new man and am working under Samshik hyungnim only in finding missing people. I didn't do anything bad even once. I swear."

Nupchi whined.

"Wait, Samshik?"

The name sounded familiar. Mu Ssang snapped his fingers after dusting off an old memory. He remembered overhearing the people from the Jang family bash Samshik Capital.

"Is Samshik Services and Samshik Capital the same company?"

"Yes. They were both founded by Samshik hyungnim. Sashiko Services mainly dispatched workers for construction and cleaning and such but lately, we've been focused on finding missing people. Sashiko Capital was founded just last year but I don't know what it is exactly that they do over there."

Sashiko Capital was a paper company that Park Inbo made to uproot the Jang family. Something neither Mu Ssang nor Nupchi was aware of. No one in the organization knew about this, in fact, because Samshik himself was personally taking care of the particular business.

"Looking for missing people? Explain that to me and make it short."

He didn't care whether Samshik Capital was conducting business with the Jang family or not. What intrigued him was the fact that they were looking for somebody. Gangs and thugs knew more about their area than even the police. Something had just crossed his mind.

"Yes. Well, we've put everything else aside and been looking for this one woman for about seven, eight years now. Hyanshim Fabric is offering a large reward and is funding the operation."

"What! Hyangshim Fabric?"

Mu Ssang raised his voice. A chill ran down his back like someone had poured ice water on his head.

"What's the name of this woman you're looking for?"

Mu Ssang asked. His voice shaking.

"Kim Malsoon."

Mu Ssang faltered. Kim Malsoon- Kim Malsoon- The name rang inside his ears. The name was fairly common in the country but there couldn't be two Kim Malsoons involved with Hyangshim Fabric. For his mother's name to come out of some thug's mouth!

"Jangpilnyeo, is it you, you bitch?"

His low mumbling carried an uncontainable bloodthirst. That wretched Jangpilnyeo was someone who'd be capable of hunting down his mother indeed. She already tried assassinating her nephew and poisoning her husband did she not?

Nupchi began turning purple. He felt a stinging in his skin and had difficulty breathing. It was as if he was drowning in water. Nupchi clutched his neck and went into a fit of coughing.

"Ah!"

'.... Ohm Amoga Bahirochana Mahamudhra Mani Padma Tsubrara Prabharmtaya....'

Mu Ssang used the Calm Mind to quell his emotions and hid his murderous spirit.

"Age and appearance? No, do you have a picture?"

"No, but we have a sketch."

Nupchi pulled out a laminated piece of paper half the size of a clipboard. The paper flew out of Nupchi's hands into Mu Ssang's. Startled, Nupchi tried his best to keep his mouth shut. This was the nightmare after all. Who knew what else he was capable of?

'Hmm!'

Mu Ssang fixed his gaze on the paper. The delicate face, dark eyebrows and teary eyes, sharp nose and vivid lips, the fragile neck and shoulders. It was his mother.

They drew in a few wrinkles here and there and some whites in her hair to accommodate for her age but it was a surprisingly well-depicted sketch of her upper body.

'Mother!'

A storm of melancholy clouded his conscience. His heart, steeled by the battlegrounds, melted like ice cream confronted by his mother's face. Mu Ssang controlled his emotions and placed the sketch inside the emergency pouch.

"Who exactly from Hyangshim Fabric gave the order?"

"I, I'm not sure. Some pudgy lady visited the CEO every now and then to check the progress. Really, I swear. I was always out with other lackeys as a footsoldier so I don't know."

Nupchi may be a simpleton, but he wasn't completely out of touch. He realized that the woman that his organization was looking for was someone important to the nightmare. He didn't want any loose ends coming back to bite him in the ass so he muscled through the immense pain and bowed down like an insect.

Mu Ssang looked up into the sky without a word. The folds of the clouds looked like that of his mother's skirts. The image of his mother's beaming face after he would come home late at night after a day of playing outside and yelling 'Mom, food!' when he saw her waiting for him on the balcony floated to the surface of his memory.

'You little bugger, you need to eat before playing outside.' His punishment, a light tap to the head, was due to his mother worrying that something even slightly stronger would hurt her little child.

'God, let's come to an agreement already. Are 16 years not enough for you?'

The heavens remained silent.

A 'pudgy lady' could have been neither Heeja nor Hwaja. It was most likely an employee. Jangpilnyeo specialized in ordering thugs around with money. That bitch involved gangs to look for his mother. Mu Ssang became restless and felt pressed for time.

"I'm in charge of searching for her. Ten of us from the organization and fifty others are searching the entire country. I'll report to you regularly from now on."

Nupchi quickly added after gauging the situation. His survival instinct was kicking in from the threat to his life.

"Sixty people?"

Mu Ssang frowned. The cost of employing sixty people was no joke. Janpilnyeo was already deep in the CB pitfall. There was no way she had the tens of thousands of dollars to spend in her situation. If it wasn't Jangpilnyeo, it must've been his uncle. But why? Mu Ssang was confused. There was no other choice. He would have to look for this 'Samshik'.

"What are those?"

Mu Ssang pointed to the thugs kneeling on the ground.

"Those are my lackeys that I bring to work sometimes. We were short of people so I brought them in to ask around in the Chilgok and Dongmyung areas."

"That so? Alright, then you should get back to it."

Mu Ssang hit each and every one of the thugs' heads with the tent pole in his hand like a drum set.

"You were probably delinquents in school and grew up and became thugs, am I right? All that's left for you in this world is acting as a human shield for real gangbangers then going to jail or becoming disabled for life."

Mu Ssang took out a cigar. The butt end snipped off with a tap from his fingernail. Nupchi moved like the wind and lit his cigar with a lighter.

"Foo~ Do what you will with your miserable lives but don't show your faces in front of me ever again. Keep posing around in a group like that and I'll cut one of your limbs off next time. You understand?"

"Yes, sir!"

Their answer resonated throughout the valley.

"Nupchi!"

"Yes!"

"Go get treated at a hospital then wait for me at the bench in Central Park at 7. I'm going to have to see this Samshik."

Mu Ssang was pressed with an intense feeling of urgency but didn't want to leave the welcoming party in this disastrous state.

"Yes, sir! Anything you need!"

Nupchi bowed down. He felt his heart sink when he mentioned his boss but he wasn't going to talk back to the nightmare.

It was absurd to think that he'll have to be Mu Ssang's guide right after he had broken three of his bones but orders were orders. It was something that a criminal like himself would have to accept as fate.

"Nupchi, show me your arm."

Mu Ssang needed him to be in a working condition if he was going to use him. He snapped Nupchi's bones back in place. Fwoosh- The resonance waves activated his cells and washed away the toxins in his body.

"Aaaah~"

Nupchi let out a moan. Not bacause it was painful. A pleasure greater than the one he felt during sex with Choonja flowed through him. Bam- Mu Ssang hit the back of his head.

"You're grossing me out! Roll up your shirt."

Mu Ssang placed his hand on the broken ribs and alternated using the resonance waves and the absorbing waves. Crack, crack- The ribs snapped back in place. Nupchi had to clench his jaws from letting out moans of pleasure. He wasn't sure what was going on but the pain subsided and jolts of pleasure rushed through his upper body.

"It's all back in place more or less. Let's see, what to use for support...."

He looked around but couldn't find anything to use as support. Swoop- He grazed a pine tree as thick as his legs with the edge of his hand. The tree fell without a sound. The eyes of the onlookers widened.

'Oops!'

He used the resonance waves without even thinking. He used telekinesis on the cutting knife one of the thugs used. Fwoop- The knife flew into his hand from the nearby grass.

"What do you think of my knife skills?"

Mu Ssang said with the knife in hand. This didn't change how others were looking at him. Japanese cutting knives were used to cut fish, not fall trees. It was crazy talk to think one could just snip a tree with a knife. It was crazy all the same whether he did it with the edge of his hand or with a knife.

Well, since he was at it, Mu Ssang brandished the knife a few more times in the blink of an eye. 6 wooden boards about the right size to use as support fell on top of each other one by one.