Chapter: 43
There were no screams.
The one who had been knocked unconscious in a single blow had no chance to make a sound.
There was no way an ordinary human could withstand Park Jihoo’s fist.
Compared to the countless Red Goblins he had slaughtered on the First Floor, these people were unbelievably weak.
“What… what was that?”
“H-Huh? Blood…?”
Only then did the punks standing nearby witness the surreal scene before them, their voices filled with confusion.
Jihoo quickly swept his gaze across their faces.
Just as he thought.
They were all familiar.
The bullies who had tormented him relentlessly.
Some attended the same high school as him, while others came from nearby schools.
There were a few faces he didn’t recognize, but birds of a feather flock together.
All of them stared blankly, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Naturally.
These thugs had spent their lives throwing around petty violence.
How could they ever have seen a human body destroyed like that?
Their reaction was only natural.
Gang Jinho. Park Chanmyung. Kim Haeyong.
He recognized the three most familiar faces.
Trash from his own class.
They stood there in stunned silence, staring at their friend lying on the ground with blood pouring from his head.
Thud.
The bleeding body collapsed completely.
Only then…
did they finally understand what had happened.
“U-AAAAAH!”
“W-What the hell?! What is this?!”
“B-Blood…!”
At last, terror appeared on their faces.
The friend who had been joking and cursing alongside them only moments ago was now bleeding profusely.
His skull shattered.
His limbs twisted grotesquely.
It would have been stranger if they hadn’t panicked.
The gang alternated their gazes between their collapsed friend and Park Jihoo before finally turning around and running.
“Shit!”
“C-Call the police!”
“Idiot! Just run first!”
Watching them descend into chaos, Jihoo moved again.
With a single step, a gale surged forward.
With a single punch, blood exploded.
An ordinary human body could never withstand the fist of a Level 30 player.
CRAAAACK!
SPLAAAAT!
“AAAAAAAHHHH!”
It didn’t even take a minute.
That was all the time it took to wipe out every thug gathered there.
More than ten delinquents…
and all but three had become blood-soaked wrecks.
“U… ugh…”
One of the remaining three, Gang Jinho, collapsed onto the ground and desperately pushed himself backward, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and Jihoo.
Judging by the wet patch spreading beneath him…
he had apparently wet himself.
Park Chanmyung and Kim Haeyong weren’t any different.
These pieces of trash trembled violently, their faces frozen with fear.
Jihoo quietly looked down at them before speaking in a low voice.
“Why?”
Flinch.
His voice wasn’t merely cold.
It was freezing.
The three of them instinctively shrank back.
But only for a moment.
Gang Jinho slowly raised his head, trembling uncontrollably.
Apparently, he recognized the voice.
“D-Dung Pit…?”
A painfully familiar nickname escaped his lips.
“Dung Pit.”
The nickname given to Park Jihoo, who had grown up in filthy, crushing poverty.
At those words, Park Chanmyung and Kim Haeyong also snapped their heads up.
“Park Jihoo?”
“What the…”
To them, Park Jihoo had simply been an irritating toy.
A second-year high school student so small and skinny that people would’ve believed he was still in middle school.
Yet he always resisted them.
Always fought back.
That was why they had constantly bullied him, trying to break his spirit.
In the end, they never managed to.
Then one day he simply disappeared.
Eventually they forgot about him.
And now…
he had suddenly returned and reduced their friends to bloody pulp with impossible strength.
None of them could understand what was happening.
“I asked why.”
Jihoo had no intention of helping them understand.
He only wanted an answer.
“W-What do you mean…?”
Kim Haeyong asked in confusion.
That was the wrong answer.
Jihoo’s eyes narrowed.
His fist shot forward.
CRACK!
His punch pierced into Kim Haeyong’s leg.
It looked like nothing more than a light tap.
Yet the bone shattered instantly.
Next came the other knee.
Then both arms.
Without even glancing at Kim Haeyong as he collapsed helplessly onto the ground, Jihoo asked once more.
“Why did you beat my little sister?”
Only then did Gang Jinho realize what Jihoo had been asking.
Of course…
that didn’t mean he could answer.
Everything they had done to Park Siyeon…
had been because of Jihoo.
“Where’s your brother?”
“Since your brother disappeared, you’ll take the beating instead.”
They hadn’t beaten Park Siyeon because of anything she’d done.
She had simply become their punching bag after Jihoo vanished.
How could they possibly admit that?
If they did…
Gang Jinho’s gaze drifted toward Kim Haeyong, whose limbs were bent into grotesque angles.
That would be him next.
No…
something even more painful.
Even more horrifying.
He absolutely didn’t want that.
As Gang Jinho desperately searched for an excuse, Park Chanmyung suddenly shouted in panic.
“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t want to do it either! H-He made me do it!”
“You son of a bitch!”
Gang Jinho had never imagined he’d be sold out at a moment like this.
Rage exploded inside him.
Not because his friend had betrayed him…
but because he hadn’t thought to say it first.
“You bastard! You hit her more than anyone! What the hell are you talking about?!”
“Who hit her the most?! You’re the one whose parents had to pay the settlement, asshole!”
“T-That’s…”
It was true.
Unlike the others, who had merely followed along…
Gang Jinho had been the one who enjoyed beating Park Siyeon the most.
He’d never felt guilty.
In fact…
every punch had been satisfying.
He imagined he was beating up that annoying “Dung Pit” instead.
Eventually he had gone too far.
She had been hospitalized.
His parents had even been forced to pay compensation.
Even then…
Gang Jinho had never imagined that his actions would ever come back to him like this.
He met Park Jihoo’s eyes.
And immediately fell silent.
Those weren’t human eyes.
They looked ready to explode and burn everything in existence to ashes.
“So…
there wasn’t any real reason.”
His voice was completely emotionless.
That made it even more terrifying when contrasted with those blazing eyes.
“I’m sorry! I committed an unforgivable crime! I-I swear, if I’d known this would happen, I’d never have touched her!”
“I-I’ll tell my mom to pay more! Ten times more! No… a hundred times! T-That should be enough…”
Gang Jinho and Park Chanmyung stopped blaming each other.
Both dropped to their knees and desperately begged for forgiveness.
At least in this moment…
their apologies were sincere.
Neither of them wanted to end up like the broken bodies lying nearby.
“Compensation…”
Jihoo pressed his lips together.
Money.
He did need money.
Not for himself.
He would eventually return to the Tower anyway.
It was for his sister.
If she was going to survive alone in this filthy, brutal world…
she would need money.
But…
“I don’t need it.”
At least…
not your money.
He clenched his fist.
“What I’m taking from you isn’t compensation.”
There was no amount of money that could pay for laying a hand on his little sister.
There was only one price they could pay.
To ensure they would never again…
hurt anyone.
His fist cut through the air.
Did he feel guilty for beating fellow humans?
For crippling over ten people badly enough that they might never recover?
Not at all.
If anything…
he felt relieved.
Even if he returned to the Tower…
these bastards would never be able to touch his sister again.
His fists crushed their fragile bodies one after another.
Unable even to scream, the three became crippled, their limbs permanently ruined, before collapsing in the middle of the very park they had used as their hideout.
“Someone will find you soon enough here. Get yourselves treated. But when you get out…
I’ll come looking for you first.”
With utterly emotionless eyes, Jihoo wiped the blood from his hands.
He silently took in the horrific scene he had created.
Then, without the slightest trace of regret, he turned away.
“I need to find Brother Yujin.”
Sung Yujin.
The man who had always acted as though he knew everything from the very beginning inside the Tower.
The man who effortlessly overcame every obstacle.
If it was him…
he could probably solve anything.
His parents.
His sister.
Even what had happened here.
“But where do I even find him?”
After thinking for a moment, Jihoo decided to leave first.
He had no desire to spend the next week sitting in a detention cell just because he lingered here.
Step.
With the same calm stride as when he had arrived…
Park Jihoo walked out of the park.
South Korea quietly began to stir.
All because of a single video that had been uploaded.
It showed one man carrying a sword fighting against soldiers.
The video, uploaded to MiTube, was only a minute long.
But the impact it created steadily grew.
“It’s fake.”
“CG, obviously. Pretty well made though.”
“Looks like viral marketing for a movie.”
Because it completely defied common sense…
almost no one took it seriously at first.
Videos like this flooded MiTube every day.
But that didn’t last long.
Witnesses began appearing one after another.
There hadn’t been just one or two people visiting Namsan to see the Black Tower who had witnessed the incident.
Eventually…
one of the soldiers who had been there came forward as well.
I was with that security battalion, and it’s real. At first I thought it was some hidden camera prank, but it was an actual situation. That crazy bastard dodged bullets and moved like he was teleporting. He wiped out an entire battalion in less than ten minutes.
ā No proof, no credibility.
ā So what’s the movie called?
ā Don’t feed the troll.
Of course, very few people believed him.
At least…
until the post was suddenly deleted.
Seeing that post get deleted… doesn’t that make it seem real?
ā He probably deleted it because he got embarrassed.
ā What if someone forced him to delete it?
ā Honestly, I think that’s more likely.
Small voices gradually became louder.
The video spread rapidly.
Witness accounts and leaks continued pouring in.
Finally…
when the sun rose…
the news stations began reporting on it.
Countless people turned their attention toward the story.
People with nothing better to do.
Online drama channels.
Even MiTubers chasing views.
Unable to resist their curiosity, they climbed Namsan.
The area around the Black Tower was under strict military control.
But no one could stop people from observing from afar.
“…Looks like it was real.”
One MiTuber, livestreaming while climbing Namsan, muttered to himself.
In the distance…
he could see the exact location from the video.
The area was covered with destruction, as though a massive battle had taken place.
Someone had clearly tried to clean it up.
But the devastation couldn’t be hidden.
“Everyone…
I think this might actually be real.”
The words of the MiTuber, who had 1.3 million subscribers, sent his chat into an uproar.
They saw it too.
Some viewers even pointed out landmarks that perfectly matched the original video.
They still couldn’t be completely certain…
but it was enough to make people suspect that the video might actually be genuine.
Thenā
“Excuse me. Let me through.”
Someone shoved the MiTuber aside as they walked past.
“Hey, what theā? I’m streaming! Who just pushed…”
He turned around with an irritated expression.
Then froze.
Was that…
a middle schooler?
At least, judging by his height and build.
But every part of his body was stained with a crimson liquid.
It looked exactly like blood.
Seeing the terrifying-looking boy, the MiTuber unconsciously stepped backward without saying a word.
“So this is the place?”
The boy, Park Jihoo, looked around before nodding to himself.
Without the slightest hesitation…
he walked straight past the restricted area.
The MiTuber silently filmed everything.
And moments later…
South Korea erupted into complete chaos.
