Mercenary Black Mamba

The lead fragments buried in his thighs and upper arms were as numerous as stars in the night sky. He caught five bullets in total, yet shrapnel fragments numbered 756. How did Mussang know this? He just did. Dimensional Sight was an intuitive process.

"Dirty Jap! Why did you ever mention the way of the samurai then?"

Mussang complained. The bullets Choe Dosik fired were viciously filled with gunpowder. This kind of bullet was banned globally due to its viciousness.

The Japanese first started using this kind of bullet. It was reminiscent of their colonial mindset. If FMJ bullets granted humane deaths, so could these bullets.

Whether one is beheaded by a blade or catches a bullet in one's heart, death is the same. A sashimi blade is good when it makes quality sashimi. A murder weapon granting quality deaths was a good weapon. To qualify it as "inhumane" would be hypocrisy.

The kind of the bullets didn't matter as much as their numbers. He caught five shots. Humans respond to stimuli rationally with the collaboration of three cells: the place cell that allows them to remember their location, the grid cell that will enable them to locate themself in space, and the speed cell that will enable them to gauge their speed and direction. It takes 0.3 seconds for the three cells to receive stimuli and react. A reflexive reaction like touching a glow-hot heater usually happens within 0.1 seconds.

Dimensional Sight skips all the above steps happening between synaptic receptors. The brain itself feeds the nerves with stimuli. The only time for reaction is the 0.1 seconds in which muscle fibers contract.

These cells are called biological navigation systems. The number and quality of these three cells determine the individual difference in reflexes. The best sniper still needs 0.3 seconds to locate the target and pull the trigger. Therefore, no one could ever possibly catch Black Mamba with aimed firing. It also meant that if one covers a wide area with bullets or the bullets are fired by a supernatural martial arts master, it could pose quite a threat to Mussang.

Even a surgeon wouldn't have been able to extract all 756 fragments. A typical human would have entered the afterlife if they caught five loaded bullets. Mussang wasn't a surgeon or a standard human. He would have beat up the Grim Reaper if they ever visited him.

The bullets, deterred by Resonance Wave, had lost most of their momentum by the time they entered Mussang's body. They couldn't pierce his firm muscles, nor could their fragments expand. Mussang pressed the wounded area with his palm and used Resonance Wave to suck out the details.

The bullets and fragments buried in the muscle were sucked out of his body. Mussang brushed the barnacle-like pieces off his palm and stood. No rifle could ever incapacitate Mussang.

Choe Dosik stared at his steaming prosthetic arm rifle. The body made of titanium alloy, having unleashed the entire 100-round ammunition at once, exuded heat. When the engineers loaded his prosthetic arm with ammunition, he never expected to use it one day.

'Have I leveled the playing ground with it?'

Subject 37 seemed to have caught at least 20 bullets. A superhuman wouldn't perish at that damage, but his combat power would have been reduced tremendously. Choe Dosik, heaving a sigh of relief unconsciously, flinched.

"What have I done like this?"

Choe Dosik muttered. He was an esteemed supernatural human who could toy with people's souls. Yet he was battered at the hands of a lowly enslaved person. He had to resort to firepower. His collapsed pride turned into rage.

The memory of the recording of Emperor Hirohito's speech, "We shall endure unbearable ordeals and overcome insurmountable challenges," sounded in his head. The emperor hurled 20 million of his people into hellfire and was struck with two atomic bombs but still kept his resolve.

And Choe Dosik didn't even look up to the emperor. This wasn't even an ordeal. His gray, clouded eyes took on definite murderous energy.

"Yeah! Once started, I shall see to it till the end."

Choe Dosik shook his head and shook off the unpleasant emotion he had just felt for the first time. The dead are silent. To avenge his honor, he needed to kill Subject 37. The victor dictated justice. The victor was the honorable one.

"I wholeheartedly agree."

Mussang walked out from behind the pillar. His steps were as leisurely as that of cherry blossom watchers in Hakone.

"What?"

Choe Dosik, unlike a ninja, gasped. His gray eyes scanned Mussang up and down. He was intact. He was covered in blood, but he only sustained surface wounds. How can a human be as whole as him after being showered by dozens of bullets? Could he even be a human? Choe Dosik frowned.

"Choe Dosik, you seem to have reached the end of your patience and power. Let's call it a day. It is well past midnight. Even though the national curfew is lifted, my mother will tell me off if I come home late."

Mussang stopped talking and pointed at the entrance. The thick iron fire door was in tatters. So were the soundproof windows. The double-glass windows had been broken long ago.

"Let's end this. You shall exist on worms in a pitch-black world as I did."

Mussang provoked him. The building of Pungguk Capital was in a remote place, but the closest industrial park and residential area were each only 300 meters and 400 meters away. There had been a din after a din. There had been gunfire. It was bizarre that no one had called the police. It was weird that no police officers ever showed up.

The police were elsewhere. They had swarmed to Daemyeong District. Even if someone called the police, no one was left to answer the call at the station, let alone someone to go to the site.

Daemyeong District was in turmoil. Big-scale explosions with unknown causes happened one after another. Sinkholes appeared here and there. Dozens of well-built houses were buried in rubble, and the cars on roads fell underground. The known casualties numbered more than a hundred.

I Daedeok, the head of the Daegu branch of the ANSP, concluded that armed North Korean spies were to blame. He was already feeling quite tense due to Jang Palsu's disappearance. The 50th Division and police were operating under emergency measures. The human resources from the 50th Division blocked the area in front of the mountain. The police force was put into handling the incidents and questioning the residents.

Choe Dosik, of course, was responsible for the catastrophe. Still, in thrall to Seonu Bangna's spell, he had ruthlessly destroyed the underground bunker and escaped. In the process, the five tons of TNT inadvertently exploded.

Yamanashi was addicted to wealth. He would not spare anyone who would try to infiltrate the bunker and steal his riches. Neither Mussang nor Choe Dosik was aware of the catastrophe in Daemyeong District. Even if Choe Dosik had known, he wouldn't have cared.

"You wretch!"

Choe Dosik wanted to chew up the grinning young man, but he lacked the teeth just as the man said. His last remaining hidden ability was surely going to be effective, but it ate away at his energy too.

Puppet Awakening!

It was the last spell on which Choe Dosik was counting, and at the same time, he was reluctant to cast. To trigger Puppet Awakening was akin to dropping an atomic bomb at close range to decimate the opponent. He would be caught up in the blast too.

Choe Dosik's hands reached into his clothes. He would shake up the opponent with his hidden weapon, Gorgon. An iron weight flashed across the space, targeting Mussang's head.

"All right. You still had some more abilities to show!"

Mussang flung back his head. The weight grazed his cheek with a blue sheen. Choe Dosik flung back his hand. The weight, connected to his hand with a wire, shot in the opposite direction and targeted the back of Mussang's head. Without looking, Mussang covered the back of his head with his hand. A sturdy wire of unknown material wound around his wrist.

"Great!"

Choe Dosik grinned slightly. The real threat of a Gorgon was not in its weight but a wire. The iron wire, developed by Dr. Kuroda, was made of nanocarbon fiber. The elasticity was seven times that of iron and the flexibility a hundred times. The two-wall surface of the iron wire was covered with dozens of thousands of tiny thorns like those of a box jellyfish. The wire could fall on a large tree trunk at once. There was no way a human's bones and flesh would be able to withstand it. He mercilessly abruptly pulled back the Gorgon's wire, envisioning a scene where Subject 37's wrist was severed at once.

"Ugh!"

Choe Dosik grunted. Tremendous power akin to a commercial jet in takeoff pulled him forward. Choe Dosik had no time to take off the glove connected to the Gorgon. He was unrooted like a vegetable. He was being pulled like a fish caught by a fishhook.

A great palm flew into him like lightning. He had no time or space to evade it. Choe Dosik glared and dodged it with Hidden Soul Palm. Grand Threefold Palm enhanced with Resonance Wave and Hidden Soul Palm collided. The first strike dislocated his left shoulder. The second tore his lungs. The third collapsed his ribs and churned his intestines.

'It is no use!'

Choe Dosik was resigned at last. The man's power equaled that of an avalanche. His honed moves collapsed feebly before the man like a house made of wood. Now he had to resort to the last resort, Puppet Awakening.

The great palm-filled his field of view again. Choe Dosik gritted his teeth. He couldn't evade it, and he didn't attempt to. It was quite a bargain if he harmed himself and could awaken the puppet in Mussang's head and acquire an enslaved person with such tremendous power. He concentrated Hidden Soul Energy on his face to brace for the strike.

The great palm struck his chin. Teeth and blood shot out of his mouth. The blood from Choe Dosik's mouth exploded. The mist of blood sprayed Mussang's face.

"How gross!"

Mussang wiped away the blood on his face with his palm. Choe Dosik had his jawbone be broken and lost several teeth but didn't flinch. His glaring gray eyes were clouded further.

"You are my slave. Kneel! Kneel!"

Choe Dosik closed his eyes and chanted the spell. Steam rose from the top of his head, and his taut skin became slack. His black sideburns turned white. His biological clock suddenly started to turn more quickly.

"I know you are Korean. Don't pretend to be Japanese and speak Korean."

Mussang, covered in blood, was feeling quite annoyed. He kicked Choe Dosik, who was still reciting the spell.

"It begins!"

As Choe Dosik finished his spell casting, there was a heavy thud. Choe Dosik flew across the space like an artillery shell and collided with a pillar. The pillar, already in a poor state, started to lean with a creaking sound. The four of the six fortified posts had already lost their function. The remaining two were in poor condition as well.

"Bwergh!"

Choe Dosik vomited a bowlful of dark-red blood. His body was now completely exhausted, and he could not utilize his energy.

"Kneel! Kneel! Now!"

Choe Dosik yelled.

"Are you out of your mind?"

Mussang stared at him.

"Why is the puppet not responding?"

Choe Dosik yelled hysterically. The seed of the puppet he had planted in Mussang's prefrontal cortex was not supposed ever to disappear. A seeded person could not be accessible even after death. The caster could cast Puppet Awakening to invoke their soul.

Since it was one of the evilest spells, it had severe prerequisites and consumed much energy. The caster needed to sacrifice their blood to awaken the seed of the puppet. Then, controlling the instrument consumed a tremendous amount of energy. Choe Dosik's appearance was suddenly altered. His black hair turned gray. His taut cheeks drooped. The skin of his neck became slack, and the tails of his eyes drooped downward. His overflowing energy faded like a deflated ball. It was the price he needed to pay when he expended his life force.

"Beeerrrkkk!"

Choe Dosik threw up blood again. He was still armored, but he had sustained considerable damage.

"You are out of your mind. A puppet? Awakening? What are you even saying?"

Mussang had no idea. When he welcomed Gim Gitaek's family, he had suddenly entered a moment of enlightenment. The puppet seed planted in his head by Choe Dosik had melted away then. Mussang continued to luck out.

Choe Dosik was speechless. He didn't feel like responding, nor had he the energy to. He sat sprawled on the floor stained by dust and blood and mindlessly looked at the ceiling.

"Don't respond. It must be one of the sloppy spells of the Unorthodox School of Martial Arts. What is this? It is very sturdy. It shall serve as a rope to restrain you."

Mussang held the Gorgon in both hands and pulled it taut. Choe Dosik stared at his beloved weapon with empty eyes. The Gorgon was not a mountain-climbing rope. Even though he was pretty adept at using it, he still had to wear protective gloves. The man was not a human, and his hands weren't either.

"A Gorgon!"

Choe Dosik answered with a sigh.

"A Gorgon?"

Mussang's eyes widened. A Gorgon was the very name of his whip that he had lost when dragged into the underground world in Syria. He felt an odd sense of nostalgia.

"It is quite useful. If you have shown everything, stand and go home."

Mussang wielded around the Gorgon like a cowboy's lasso and smirked. Choe Dosik was not only wholly exhausted but aged tremendously. He didn't merit a comfortable death. He needed to exist on cockroaches and worms in total darkness and await his demise. Mussang wasn't sure if the second basement had a supply of cockroaches, but he also wanted to ask many questions to Choe Dosik.

"I shall. I blame the universe. I was on the verge of taking over the world, but a Korean kid had put an end to it."

Choe Dosik ground his teeth and complained. He became utterly shocked when the kid didn't respond to Puppet Awakening. How was he going to be compensated for his lost life force? The lead fragments buried in his thighs and upper arms were as numerous as stars in the night sky. He caught five bullets in total, yet shrapnel fragments numbered 756. How did Mussang know this? He just did. Dimensional Sight was an intuitive process.

"Dirty Jap! Why did you ever mention the way of the samurai then?"

Mussang complained. The bullets Choe Dosik fired were viciously filled with gunpowder. This kind of bullet was banned globally due to its viciousness.

The Japanese first started using this kind of bullet. It was reminiscent of their colonial mindset. If FMJ bullets granted humane deaths, so could these bullets.

Whether one is beheaded by a blade or catches a bullet in one's heart, death is the same. A sashimi blade is good when it makes quality sashimi. A murder weapon granting quality deaths was a good weapon. To qualify it as "inhumane" would be hypocrisy.

The kind of the bullets didn't matter as much as their numbers. He caught five shots. Humans respond to stimuli rationally with the collaboration of three cells: the place cell that allows them to remember their location, the grid cell that will enable them to locate themself in space, and the speed cell that will enable them to gauge their speed and direction. It takes 0.3 seconds for the three cells to receive stimuli and react. A reflexive reaction like touching a glow-hot heater usually happens within 0.1 seconds.

Dimensional Sight skips all the above steps happening between synaptic receptors. The brain itself feeds the nerves with stimuli. The only time for reaction is the 0.1 seconds in which muscle fibers contract.

These cells are called biological navigation systems. The number and quality of these three cells determine the individual difference in reflexes. The best sniper still needs 0.3 seconds to locate the target and pull the trigger. Therefore, no one could ever possibly catch Black Mamba with aimed firing. It also meant that if one covers a wide area with bullets or the bullets are fired by a supernatural martial arts master, it could pose quite a threat to Mussang.

Even a surgeon wouldn't have been able to extract all 756 fragments. An ordinary human would have entered the afterlife if they caught five loaded bullets. Mussang wasn't a surgeon or an average human. He would have beat up the Grim Reaper if they ever visited him.

The bullets, deterred by Resonance Wave, had lost most of their momentum by the time they entered Mussang's body. They couldn't pierce his firm muscles, nor could their fragments expand. Mussang pressed the wounded area with his palm and used Resonance Wave to suck out the elements.

The bullets and fragments buried in the muscle were sucked out of his body. Mussang brushed the barnacle-like chips off his palm and stood. No rifle could ever incapacitate Mussang.

Choe Dosik stared at his steaming prosthetic arm rifle. The body made of titanium alloy, having unleashed the entire 100-round ammunition at once, exuded heat. When the engineers loaded his prosthetic arm with ammunition, he never expected to use it one day.

'Have I leveled the playing ground with it?'

Subject 37 seemed to have caught at least 20 bullets. A superhuman wouldn't perish at that damage, but his combat power would have been reduced tremendously. Choe Dosik, heaving a sigh of relief unconsciously, flinched.

"What have I done like this?"

Choe Dosik muttered. He was an esteemed supernatural human who could toy with people's souls. Yet he was battered at the hands of a lowly enslaved person. He had to resort to firepower. His collapsed pride turned into rage.

The memory of the recording of Emperor Hirohito's speech, "We shall endure unbearable ordeals and overcome insurmountable challenges," sounded in his head. The emperor hurled 20 million of his people into hellfire and was struck with two atomic bombs but still kept his resolve.

And Choe Dosik didn't even look up to the emperor. This wasn't even an ordeal. His gray, clouded eyes took on definite murderous energy.

"Yeah! Once started, I shall see to it till the end."

Choe Dosik shook his head and shook off the unpleasant emotion he had just felt for the first time. The dead are silent. To avenge his honor, he needed to kill Subject 37. The victor dictated justice. The victor was the honorable one.

"I wholeheartedly agree."

Mussang walked out from behind the pillar. His steps were as leisurely as that of cherry blossom watchers in Hakone.

"What?"

Choe Dosik, unlike a ninja, gasped. His gray eyes scanned Mussang up and down. He was intact. He was covered in blood, but he only sustained surface wounds. How can a human be as whole as him after being showered by dozens of bullets? Could he even be a human? Choe Dosik frowned.

"Choe Dosik, you seem to have reached the end of your patience and power. Let's call it a day. It is well past midnight. Even though the national curfew is lifted, my mother will tell me off if I come home late."

Mussang stopped talking and pointed at the entrance. The thick iron fire door was in tatters. So were the soundproof windows. The double-glass windows had been broken long ago.

"Let's end this. You shall exist on worms in a pitch-black world as I did."

Mussang provoked him. The building of Pungguk Capital was in a remote place, but the closest industrial park and residential area were each only 300 meters and 400 meters away. There had been a din after a din. There had been gunfire. It was bizarre that no one had called the police. It was odd that no police officers ever showed up.

The police were elsewhere. They had swarmed to Daemyeong District. Even if someone called the police, no one was left to answer the call at the station, let alone someone to go to the site.

Daemyeong District was in turmoil. Big-scale explosions with unknown causes happened one after another. Sinkholes appeared here and there. Dozens of well-built houses were buried in rubble, and the cars on roads fell underground. The known casualties numbered more than a hundred.

I Daedeok, the head of the Daegu branch of the ANSP, concluded that armed North Korean spies were to blame. He was already feeling quite tense due to Jang Palsu's disappearance. The 50th Division and police were operating under emergency measures. The human resources from the 50th Division blocked the area in front of the mountain. The police force was put into handling the incidents and questioning the residents.

Choe Dosik, of course, was responsible for the catastrophe. Still, in thrall to Seonu Bangna's spell, he had ruthlessly destroyed the underground bunker and escaped. In the process, the five tons of TNT inadvertently exploded.

Yamanashi was addicted to wealth. He would not spare anyone who would try to infiltrate the bunker and steal his riches. Neither Mussang nor Choe Dosik was aware of the catastrophe in Daemyeong District. Even if Choe Dosik had known, he wouldn't have cared.

"You wretch!"

Choe Dosik wanted to chew up the grinning young man, but he lacked the teeth just as the man said. His last remaining hidden ability was surely going to be effective, but it ate away at his energy too.

Puppet Awakening!

It was the last spell on which Choe Dosik was counting, and at the same time, he was reluctant to cast. To trigger Puppet Awakening was akin to dropping an atomic bomb at close range to decimate the opponent. He would be caught up in the blast too.

Choe Dosik's hands reached into his clothes. He would shake up the opponent with his hidden weapon, Gorgon. An iron weight flashed across the space, targeting Mussang's head.

"All right. You still had some more abilities to show!"

Mussang flung back his head. The weight grazed his cheek with a blue sheen. Choe Dosik flung back his hand. The weight, connected to his hand with a wire, shot in the opposite direction and targeted the back of Mussang's head. Without looking, Mussang covered the back of his head with his hand. A sturdy wire of unknown material wound around his wrist.

"Great!"

Choe Dosik grinned slightly. The real threat of a Gorgon was not in its weight but the wire. The iron wire, developed by Dr. Kuroda, was made of nanocarbon fiber. The elasticity was seven times that of iron and the flexibility a hundred times. The two-wall surface of the iron wire was covered with dozens of thousands of tiny thorns like those of a box jellyfish. The wire could fall on a large tree trunk at once. There was no way a human's bones and flesh would be able to withstand it. He mercilessly abruptly pulled back the Gorgon's wire, envisioning a scene where Subject 37's wrist was severed at once.

"Ugh!"

Choe Dosik grunted. Tremendous power akin to a commercial jet in takeoff pulled him forward. Choe Dosik had no time to take off the glove connected to the Gorgon. He was unrooted like a vegetable. He was being pulled like a fish caught by a fishhook.

A great palm flew into him like lightning. He had no time or space to evade it. Choe Dosik glared and dodged it with Hidden Soul Palm. Grand Threefold Palm enhanced with Resonance Wave and Hidden Soul Palm collided. The first strike dislocated his left shoulder. The second tore his lungs. The third collapsed his ribs and churned his intestines.

'It is no use!'

Choe Dosik was resigned at last. The man's power equaled that of an avalanche. His honed moves collapsed feebly before the man like a house made of wood. Now he had to resort to the last resort, Puppet Awakening.

The great palm-filled his field of view again. Choe Dosik gritted his teeth. He couldn't evade it, and he didn't attempt to. It was quite a bargain if he harmed himself and could awaken the puppet in Mussang's head and acquire an enslaved person with such tremendous power. He concentrated Hidden Soul Energy on his face to brace for the strike.

The great palm struck his chin. Teeth and blood shot out of his mouth. The blood from Choe Dosik's mouth exploded. The mist of blood sprayed Mussang's face.

"How gross!"

Mussang wiped away the blood on his face with his palm. Choe Dosik had his jawbone be broken and lost several teeth but didn't flinch. His glaring gray eyes were clouded further.

"You are my slave. Kneel! Kneel!"

Choe Dosik closed his eyes and chanted the spell. Steam rose from the top of his head, and his taut skin became slack. His black sideburns turned white. His biological clock suddenly started to turn more quickly.

"I know you are Korean. Don't pretend to be Japanese and speak Korean."

Mussang, covered in blood, was feeling quite annoyed. He kicked Choe Dosik, who was still reciting the spell.

"It begins!"

As Choe Dosik finished his spell casting, there was a heavy thud. Choe Dosik flew across the space like an artillery shell and collided with a pillar. The pillar, already in a poor state, started to lean with a creaking sound. The four of the six fortified posts had already lost their function. The remaining two were in poor condition as well.

"Bwergh!"

Choe Dosik vomited a bowlful of dark-red blood. His body was now completely exhausted, and he could not utilize his energy.

"Kneel! Kneel! Now!"

Choe Dosik yelled.

"Are you out of your mind?"

Mussang stared at him.

"Why is the puppet not responding?"

Choe Dosik yelled hysterically. The seed of the puppet he had planted in Mussang's prefrontal cortex was not supposed ever to disappear. A seeded person could not be accessible even after death. The caster could cast Puppet Awakening to invoke their soul.

Since it was one of the evilest spells, it had severe prerequisites and consumed much energy. The caster needed to sacrifice their blood to awaken the seed of the puppet. Then, controlling the tool consumed a tremendous amount of energy. Choe Dosik's appearance was suddenly altered. His black hair turned gray. His taut cheeks drooped. The skin of his neck became slack, and the tails of his eyes drooped downward. His overflowing energy faded like a deflated ball. It was the price he needed to pay when he expended his life force.

"Bwerkh!"

Choe Dosik threw up blood again. He was still armored, but he had sustained considerable damage.

"You are out of your mind. A puppet? Awakening? What are you even saying?"

Mussang had no idea. When he welcomed Gim Gitaek's family, he had suddenly entered a moment of enlightenment. The puppet seed planted in his head by Choe Dosik had melted away then. Mussang continued to luck out.

Choe Dosik was speechless. He didn't feel like responding, nor had he the energy to. He sat sprawled on the floor stained by dust and blood and mindlessly looked at the ceiling.

"Don't respond. It must be one of the sloppy spells of the Unorthodox School of Martial Arts. What is this? It is very sturdy. It shall serve as a rope to restrain you."

Mussang held the Gorgon in both hands and pulled it taut. Choe Dosik stared at his beloved weapon with empty eyes. The Gorgon was not a mountain-climbing rope. Even though he was pretty adept at using it, he still had to wear protective gloves. The man was not a human, and his hands weren't either.

"A Gorgon!"

Choe Dosik answered with a sigh.

"A Gorgon?"

Mussang's eyes widened. A Gorgon was the very name of his whip that he had lost when dragged into the underground world in Syria. He felt an odd sense of nostalgia.

"It is quite useful. If you have shown everything, stand and go home."

Mussang wielded around the Gorgon like a cowboy's lasso and smirked. Choe Dosik was not only wholly exhausted but aged tremendously. He didn't merit a comfortable death. He needed to exist on cockroaches and worms in total darkness and await his demise. Mussang wasn't sure if the second basement had a supply of cockroaches, but he also wanted to ask many questions to Choe Dosik.

"I shall. I blame the universe. I was on the verge of taking over the world, but a Korean kid had put an end to it."

Choe Dosik ground his teeth and complained. He became utterly shocked when the kid didn't respond to Puppet Awakening. How was he going to be compensated for his lost life force?