GDDHM 11

11
The provocative post Cheon Do-hyun had uploaded was deleted as if by magic, just as its view count began to climb.
[This post has been deleted by administrator authority.]
That was the power Jang Ki-han wielded. The power to manipulate even the nation’s largest online communities at will.
Until he read the notification that his post had been deleted, Cheon Do-hyun felt relatively unmoved.
‘I saw it coming anyway.’
But when his homeroom teacher informed him a few days later that a Disciplinary Committee hearing on School Violence had been scheduled, everything changed.
“School Violence?”
The moment Cheon Do-hyun saw his own name listed as the perpetrator, a crack appeared in the composure that rarely wavered, even under ordinary circumstances.
“What was done to me all through the first semester, then?”
Cheon Do-hyun pulled out his Old Leather Notebook and flipped through it, muttering under his breath. The sight of him was almost hysterical.
“Hey… Do-hyun…”
“Do-hyun.”
Kim Seung-yeon and Kim Jun-pyo looked at him with worried eyes. They had been indirect witnesses and passive bystanders to the ostracism Cheon Do-hyun had endured throughout the first semester. Because of that, neither could bring themselves to offer him easy words of comfort.
‘I have no right to…’
Kim Jun-pyo silently placed a chocolate milk on Cheon Do-hyun’s desk.
“Do-hyun…”
Kim Seung-yeon was wearing a sympathetic expression, rooting for him in her heart, when he spoke.
“Class president.”
“Huh? Yes?”
“Hwanggeum-ryun. Do you know where those guys are?”
Cheon Do-hyun was not the type to simply endure. It was an attitude learned from his grandfather.
Meet strong force with strong force.
When an environment is judged unwinnable no matter what, shift the board you’re standing on.
That was Cheon Do-hyun’s way. For Jang Ki-han, school was a playground, but Hwanggeum-ryun meant something different.
Hwanggeum-ryun was his source of funding and his weakness.
And Cheon Do-hyun was about to touch that weakness.
Kim Seung-yeon read his intention and her face went pale.
“Are you insane? Do you want to die? You got lucky that time and defeated them, but if you’re talking about actually fighting them seriously, things will be different!”
Cheon Do-hyun stared at Kim Seung-yeon, who was growing increasingly worked up, and spoke.
“You eavesdropped.”
“What, what did I—”
“How else would you know I got lucky and defeated them? I distinctly told you to run.”
…
“The information debt you owe is paid, so hand it over now. Information about Hwanggeum-ryun.”
“This time I really don’t know. My information is limited to the school. How would I know about a criminal organization like that…”
Kim Seung-yeon trailed off and suddenly seemed to remember someone, her gaze shifting.
“But there’s one person I think might know.”
Her gaze landed on Kim Byeong-hak, who was quietly slumped over his desk in the back row.
Feeling the weight of her stare, Kim Byeong-hak lifted his head cautiously, and when his eyes met Cheon Do-hyun’s, he was startled and spoke defensively.
“What? What? I’m just sitting here quietly!”
—
Kim Byeong-hak held firm, refusing to divulge any information about Hwanggeum-ryun. He looked like a martyr ready to face death. But humans inevitably succumb to visible, certain fear more readily than to abstract uncertainty.
“Byeong-hak. Why do you think you’re still able to walk on two legs?”
Pop-pop-pop.
Cheon Do-hyun cracked his knuckles audibly—not because he was waiting for an answer.
Then, while Kim Byeong-hak was still searching for a response, he graciously provided the correct one himself.
“There was no particular reason. It was a miracle. But I think that miracle is ending today. Let’s end this long-standing feud that’s lasted since March.”
Cheon Do-hyun threw his Old Leather Notebook onto the boy’s desk.
As the notebook tumbled open, sentences written in red pen were revealed inside.
Calf crank to Kim Byeong-hak
Triangle choke
Attack the arm joints with an armbar
Approach with an amanari roll and break the ankle
These were the strategies he had devised against that opponent. Back then, without Internal Energy, he lacked the strength to execute them,
but now he had more than enough.
“So, starting with the first item on the list…”
Kim Byeong-hak knew this fact as well, and his face drained of color in an instant.
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”
—
Kim Byeong-hak had contact with only one branch of Hwanggeum-ryun.
Had he been a formal member, he might have gleaned more information.
But before gaining recognition from Jang Ki-han, his defeat at Cheon Do-hyun’s hands had loomed too large.
“I haven’t heard from Jang Ki-han in ages…”
He’d presented his phone records as proof of his innocence, leaving no room for doubt.
That night, Cheon Do-hyun set out armed with the intelligence Kim Byeong-hak had provided,
heading toward the Abandoned Factory, one of Hwanggeum-ryun’s branches in the 4th District.
A High-Crime Area where city lights never reached.
A place you’d never find unless someone told you the way.
The surroundings were so desolate you wouldn’t spot a single ant,
but the moment he passed the ominous metal gate, rough-looking men began to materialize from the shadows.
“We doubled it this time, didn’t we?”
“How much?”
“Two hundred! That’s why I told you to leave it to me.”
“Damn, I’m so jealous. You’re buying us a round today.”
“No way. I’m using this as seed money to go again.”
The two men chuckled as they traded trivial gossip about gambling and women.
Cheon Do-hyun took his time, observing their movements with deliberate patience.
Though they appeared to be wandering aimlessly, there was a pattern to their patrol.
‘They move to designated locations on schedule.’
The two seemed to be tasked with patrol duty, but they weren’t concentrating on their work. Given Hwanggeum-ryun’s infamous reputation, they believed no one would be bold enough to attack them. Their backer was none other than Jang Ki-han, a son of the Madomyeongga, which gave their confidence a solid foundation.
Of course, that was only true until Cheon Do-hyun arrived.
The guards chuckled, rolling small flames from their fingertips like toys.
Mages—lowborn ones, perhaps, but objects of terror to ordinary people.
*Whoosh—*
A shadow rippled through the darkness.
“Huh? Did something just pass by?”
“Just the wind. Getting spooked?”
The moment one man turned his head,
a figure in a black hood stood before him.
No footsteps, no killing intent. Like a ghost.
**[Cheonma Hwanyeong-bo – Concealment Form]**
“Who—”
“Shh.”
Cheon Do-hyun’s hand clamped over the man’s mouth.
Simultaneously, he drove a short Chun-gyeong strike into the man’s solar plexus.
*Ugh.*
The man crumpled without even a scream.
His companion gasped and drew out a staff.
“Intruder…!”
*Snap—*
Before he could finish speaking.
Cheon Do-hyun’s body technique blurred, burrowing into the man’s space in an instant.
“Go to sleep.”
*Crack!*
The man’s jaw took the precise hit, his eyes rolling back as he dropped.
Securing the entrance in seconds, Cheon Do-hyun looked up at the CCTV camera.
Then he drew a finger lightly across his throat.
**[Intrusion Initiated]**
The alarm began wailing. Apparently, whoever had been monitoring the CCTV in real time had triggered the alarm system.
Cheon Do-hyun quickly recalled the intelligence Kim Byeong-hak had given him.
[ 4th District Abandoned Factory. Officially a recycling center, but they’re refining Blue Dust—a drug—in the basement. Security down there is tight. They’ve got magical security systems as standard, and it looks like there are always at least a dozen or so members of 2nd Circle and above stationed there.]
Sure enough, the moment the alarm sounded, members began pouring out of the factory.
“What the hell! A rat got inside?”
“Get him! Kill the bastard!”
Each of them wielded a different tool.
As the situation grew dire, Cheon Do-hyun remained composed, mentally counting the organization members emerging from the basement.
‘Six, seven, eight…’
The moment that count crossed into double digits, Cheon Do-hyun made his move first.
‘I don’t need to fight them all.’
He roused his Internal Energy from his dantian and stepped forward.
[Cheonma Hwanyeong-bo]
With each footfall, Cheon Do-hyun’s phantoms began to cloud the enemies’ vision. To the eyes of the Hwanggeum-ryun members, it appeared as though Do-hyun had multiplied exponentially, as if he were wielding a clone technique.
“W-what?!”
“Illusion magic?!”
“It’s a trick! Don’t fall for it!”
The veterans among the organization’s ranks quickly saw through the phantoms. But by the time they realized it, it was already too late.
“The intruder’s got inside!”
“Grab him!”
“We’re done for!”
Cheon Do-hyun shook off those who had emerged from the factory in a single motion and headed straight for the manufacturing facility.
“Stop him!”
Those lurking at the choke point unleashed a barrage of offensive magic to block Do-hyun’s advance.
Fireballs, ice arrows, wind cutters.
The narrow factory interior flashed with the brilliance of spellcraft.
But Cheon Do-hyun did not dodge. No—he had no need to.
**[Cheonma Hwanyeong-bo]**
He felt his proficiency with the Cheonma Hwanyeong-bo accumulating in real time.
And in this moment, Do-hyun came to understand that he could now do something beyond merely conjuring phantoms.
The Cheonma Hwanyeong-bo had reached its second level, earned through life-or-death combat experience.
‘I can now create illusions with far greater freedom.’
And so, improvised on the spot, a technique. He called it
**[Youryeong-mu]**
His body technique seemed to dissolve into the air itself, vanishing.
Shiiiiing—
Whoosh-boom-boom-boom!
Even the relentless barrage of magical fire could not catch Cheon Do-hyun. He was like a ghost.
“How is this possible!”
Where he seemed to have lingered, only a faint, spectral mist remained.
“No, why won’t it connect! Why won’t anything connect!”
“It’s a spirit! That bastard is a spirit!”
They did not realize that Do-hyun had closed in behind them, striking at empty space instead.
Their fate, given up so lamely, was already sealed.
[Heupseong Dae-beop]
He raised both hands and amicably clamped them on either side of the two men’s heads.
“Ugh—aaaahhh!”
And so, passing through the corridor, Cheon Do-hyun at last stepped into the factory’s interior.
Within lay an enormous drug manufacturing facility.
A conveyor belt scattered with blue powder.
Organization members guarded the place, but their numbers were thin—a result of the commotion Do-hyun had caused above.
“We have to stop him.”
They gripped the weapons in their hands with grim resolve.
They knew it well: the intruder had overcome every organization member stationed outside and reached this place regardless.
Their strength could never hope to stop this man.
As Cheon Do-hyun stepped forward, the terrified mages retreated.
He ignored the organization members guarding the drug facility entirely, his gaze fixed on the machinery as he spoke.
“So this is what they call Jang Ki-han’s wallet, huh?”
Beneath the hood, his eyes gleamed with a chilling light. Then Do-hyun raised his leg high.
Channeling his Internal Energy according to the Divine Technique’s formula, he felt an immense pressure building in the lifted leg.
‘Krrgh.’
The very act of bringing his foot down seemed to generate powerful resistance.
Cheon Do-hyun stamped the ground with all his might.
**[Cheonma Gunnim-bo]**
A devastating pressure, driving downward from above, struck the entire area.
*Crunch-crunch-crunch-boom!*
The entire factory floor twisted as though an earthquake had rocked it.
Glass bottles of Blue Dust being refined could not withstand the shockwave and shattered in a chain reaction.
*Crash! Boom! Bang-bang!*
“The facility’s being destroyed!”
“Aaahhh!”
Blue powder rained down like snow upon the disoriented gang members sprawled across the ground.
Billions of won in narcotics reduced to garbage in a single moment.
Then something from the wreckage bounced across the floor and skittered to Cheon Do-hyun’s feet.
A Lighter.
At the sight of it, Cheon Do-hyun grinned as if struck by an amusing thought, and bent to pick it up.
“Might as well finish this the proper way.”
*Click.*
The flame from the Lighter fell onto the blue powder.
*Whoosh!*
The Blue Dust burned with terrifying ease—a single spark erupted into a raging inferno that grew at a frightening pace.
A deafening roar of flame.
A towering pillar of fire consumed the inside of the factory.
Behind the screaming gang members fleeing in panic, Cheon Do-hyun strolled out of the factory without a care.
—
At the same moment, in the VIP lounge.
Jang Ki-han sipped his tea leisurely, turning over plans for the Disciplinary Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow.
“A student playing soldier. What do you think you can actually do?”
Then, a text notification chimed.
A message from one of his men.
**[A photo has arrived.]**
Jang Ki-han opened it without thinking—and the teacup slipped from his hands.
*Shatter!*
The photograph showed the 4th District factory engulfed in crimson flames, burning bright.
Below it, a brief line of text.
**[4th District factory completely destroyed by intruder.]**
Another photograph arrived moments after.
A young man’s youthful face, making a throat-cutting gesture toward the CCTV camera.
Jang Ki-han recognized him in an instant.
“Cheon Do-hyun, you crazy bastard!!!”
A bestial roar tore from Jang Ki-han’s throat.