32 A Company Isn't a Space for Self-Realization

“…….”

A menacing wind, as if foretelling what was to come. Aul and I stared at each other in silence.

“Ha.”

A short laugh tugged at the corners of Aul’s mouth. He didn’t seem embarrassed or uncomfortable. If anything, shame fit him better.

“I-I mean-! It’s not something you can just say and be done with-!”

Aul’s voice was the same as ever.

It was undeniable that he had been injured, and it was also true that he had crossed a point of no return as a singer.

“A-aah-! Is this your true nature?! I’m so moved-! I-!”

“I’m glad you’re moved. But we still have to sort out the facts.”

The cigarette smoke and the mist of the Twilight River mingled and scattered. The boatman in a sedge hat wordlessly urged us to board, as if he had no interest at all.

“Hah, I’ve got nothing to say-!”

Deciding it was no longer worth continuing the conversation, Aul turned firmly away.

His steps toward the boatman quickened.

“Where do you think you’re going, Mr. Aul?”

As I strode forward, the bodyguards naturally stepped in to block my way.

“Hey, Juseon, that’s enough now.”

“Seriously, what is this situation?”

“I don’t know why, but please stop.”

The bodyguards’ expressions were naturally sour. The Beta team, especially the ones who had spent two nights and three days with me, were hesitant in their movements.

In the end, Manager Kang Baram stepped forward and let out a sigh.

“I understand your opinion. But it’s all just speculation, isn’t it?”

“Opium den.”

At that one word, Aul’s steps jolted to a stop. When he turned his head back, his gaze was far more menacing than before.

“According to what the doctor said yesterday, people addicted to opium dens in the western part of the old Murim are showing symptoms similar to Mr. Aul’s right now.”

“Opium den means... drugs?”

Crackdowns on narcotics are very important, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety also throws a lot of manpower at them on the Third Floor.

But this gets a little complicated.

On the Fourth Floor, the Rajesta Continent, narcotics are basically simple, so classification is easy.

By contrast, the Sixth Floor, Cyber City, is lenient and vast in this regard.

Needles, pills, cigarettes, candy, smoke, audiovisual materials, sex toys, and more.

Since new things keep pouring out, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety is putting all its effort into classifying Cyber City’s narcotics.

It’s such a headache that most of the related incidents in the news are said to have come over from Cyber City.

In this situation, the Fifth Floor is a gray area.

It’s not nonexistent, but they don’t crack down on it too heavily either.

“People take drugs made on the Fifth Floor over to the Third Floor. The Customs Service can’t even properly judge things like pills and elixirs in detail.”

“Proof—! Do you have any?! Spreading false rumors—!”

“The herbal medicine doctor from yesterday. The Taegeuk Eumyang Sect is after him right now.”

Seeing my perspective flip like that was the right way to put it. Once one thing looked strange, everything else looked strange too.

The herbal medicine doctor I saw in the hallway yesterday left with his head bowed so low I could see the crown of his head.

At the time, I thought it was simply Baek Yeonhwa’s affection toward me—.

But that wasn’t it.

What if he was actually someone who couldn’t show his face to Baek Yeonhwa?

What if he had literally run away?

“The Taegeuk Eumyang Sect will find him soon, so please wait just a little.”

At my words, Aul pounded his chest in frustration.

“D-don’t suspect me-!? Why should I wait-!”

Aul tried to leave again.

The boatman was waiting for Aul, as if he truly had no interest in the mundane world.

If he heads off to the land of immortals, we won’t be able to catch him.

But Manager Kang Baram’s hand was still on my shoulder.

“Stock manipulation, opium dens. I understand why you’re saying that, but in the end it’s all speculation.”

“…….”

“You haven’t forgotten what I said when we first started, have you?”

‘Under any circumstances, we put our clients first.’

‘Unlike the Association, remember that we don’t work for the public good.’

Manager Kang Baram’s words could be called Blackline Risk’s creed and management philosophy.

Because they’re the ones who do what the Association can’t.

“Until a real court ruling is made, based on the presumption of innocence, Mr. Aul is an ordinary citizen. And we are in the position of protecting our client.”

A wall rose in front of me.

A wall called people in black suits.

Then I suddenly remembered what Ryuseoram had asked yesterday.

‘About my guys, how do they seem skill-wise?’

‘Just from a glance, do you think you could beat them up?’

I had brushed off the question at the time.

If I had to answer that question—.

‘Easy.’

The dull thud swallowed up the answer.

In the blink of an eye, Manager Kang Baram was lying on the floor.

It was something my father always used to say.

No matter how much a person trains, they’ll inevitably have physical weaknesses.

“Wh-what happened-!”

The manager didn’t even realize how he had been taken down.

Likewise, before he had time to scream, he was punched out cold.

“M-Manager!”

“Mr. Juseon, you’ve crossed the line!”

“Ugh-.”

Even amid the other bodyguards’ warnings, I frowned and rolled my shoulders loose.

Since there wouldn’t be much trouble if I took down veteran Manager Kang Baram with a surprise attack, I’d used burst acceleration a little too much.

The physical strain was greater than I expected.

“I’m sore.”

“Kim Juseon, even now—!”

People are funny.

They had just seen me take someone down with burst acceleration, and yet because I was loosening my shoulders, they let their guard down.

I’ve snared plenty of people this way at the Hunter Training Center, too.

“Thwack-!”

A knee strike sank into the face of the dwarf Dedral.

After that, before the other bodyguards could react, I moved straight on to the next person.

“Whack! Thwack!”

It was always like that.

It was far easier to knock a person down than to kill a monster.

“Grab him with telekinesis!”

“I’m trying-!”

The telekinetic who was trying got punched in the stomach and crumpled.

I had sparred too often with a woman far too formidable to be caught by ordinary telekinesis.

There was even an Awakened who hardened his body like steel. Curling himself into a ball, he charged at me with a rock-like body slam and shouted,

“I’ve got a toughness that can deflect blades and bullets. I was the one you should have knocked out first!”

A brazen declaration is just a stale bit of exposition. That’s usually the kind of thing inexperienced guys show.

It’s no different from a dog barking to prove it’s strong.

The problem was I really had no way to break through it—.

“Why would I need to break through it?”

I grabbed the telekinetic woman who had just been knocked down by the back of her clothes and hoisted her up.

She was a small woman, light enough that I worried she wasn’t eating enough.

Whoosh-!

Thanks to that, I could throw her with ease.

“You crazy bastard!”

The man who had charged at me hurriedly released his hardening and caught the woman. If she had collided with him head-on, she would have been smashed to pieces, as if hit by a speeding car.

Whack!

Taking advantage of the opening when his hardening dropped, I struck his side with a fist like a stab and cut off his breath in an instant.

“Hrk?!”

‘I’ve been fighting a lot lately.’

Starting with Geum Taemin and then Baek Yeonhwa.

And now.

Especially the bodyguards, who were about the same level as or a little below the kids I used to face at the training center, brought those days vividly back.

Those childish days when I used the people-killing techniques my father taught me to steamroll everyone at the training center... that sort of thing.

The mist of the Twilight River cleared, revealing the bodyguards sprawled on the floor in stark detail.

Aul, who hadn’t expected things to go this way, looked flustered, but even so he still had something to rely on—.

“Well, well.”

A top-tier force on the Third Floor.

One of the Seven Extremes, Ryuseoram, approached with a sly smile.

“Your skills still haven’t gotten rusty, Juseon.”

That sly smile still hadn’t faded, and if anything it stretched even wider than before.

Looking at Ryuseoram, who seemed to be enjoying herself the most during this two-night, three-day trip—.

“You really haven’t changed.”

It felt just the same as the old days.

If I had to say where I started doubting Aul, honestly, it hadn’t been all that long ago.

Good intuition isn’t some omnipotent power, after all.

But if I had to pinpoint the moment suspicion became possible—.

Tracing the story back through the past.

The very beginning.

‘When Meracle’s dead quiet, come over to our side and earn some pocket money as a part-timer. I’ll pay you generously.’

It was probably this.

After that, Ryuseoram kept saying it to me.

‘Because you’ve got good instincts.’

At the time I just brushed it off, but once the pieces fit, it no longer sounded like a simple compliment.

“Hurry up and get into position.”

My arms were burning from using the acceleration ability one after another.

The heat gathering in my joints made it feel like my bones were melting.

With the strain on my body, it was hard to keep using acceleration.

But I felt calmer than when fighting anyone else.

If I had to compare it, it was like getting the answers right on a perfect test paper.

Back to the point.

Why had Ryuseoram gone out of her way to bring me on as a part-timer for this job?

Why use me as a bodyguard even though she knew the people inside wouldn’t approve?

Why keep asking, ‘Any unusual details?’ and stressing, ‘Because you’ve got good instincts’?

In the midst of us rushing toward each other, our eyes met.

“I thought you wouldn’t notice, you top-ranked bastard.”

She was smiling happily.

Even without using acceleration, my fist sank cleanly into Ryuseoram.

“There’s a USB in my bag. It has the evidence I collected, so take it.”

Whack!

Ryuseoram whispered as she toppled over with absurd ease.

“This is why people need to hear ‘boss.’ I can use a company as a space for self-realization or a place to preach my ideas, can’t I? Don’t you know that famous saying?”

Doing what I want behind the company’s back shouldn’t be this hard.

The boss really is the best.

“Shut up and catch her already. She’s running off to get on the boat.”

At Ryuseoram’s urging, as she answered in a tiny voice while pretending to be unconscious, I let out a sigh.

“This should count as overtime.”

Ryuseoram, collapsed on the ground, raised both middle fingers.