Retribution (1)
Zhao Rui, the Director of Intelligence, was a magic user.
Although his ability was far removed from combat… an ability called ‘Truth or Lie,’ essentially a lie-detection ability, he was still undeniably a magic user.
But even he was completely helpless against Seon Yul.
An awakened ability that could determine whether someone was telling the truth or lying might make someone suitable to be the head of an intelligence department, but it was nearly useless in actual combat.
Seon Yul wrapped Arachne’s thread around his neck and carefully controlled the strength to knock him unconscious first. The man clearly looked like the commander, so Seon Yul chose to capture him alive.
However, the three intelligence agents who had been with him received no such mercy.
Seon Yul wrapped Arachne’s thread around their necks and snapped them immediately.
One person for interrogation was enough, so eliminating the rest quickly was the correct choice.
‘The head is dealt with for now… Please share the next target.’
When Seon Yul requested through telepathy, Cheon Li Yu, inside the house, turned her head and looked in another direction.
Through her Divine Eye, she had already seen all 16 Magic Assault Soldiers approaching her position.
After glancing over the sixteen, Cheon Li Yu first focused on No.15, who was positioned farthest in the rear.
Seon Yul, maintaining his camouflage, immediately moved toward No.15.
From the start, the individuals known as Magic Assault Soldiers were no match for Seon Yul.
China’s Dimension Management Bureau believed that AbsoluteSafetyFirst had been able to destroy Old Blood because he possessed a special ability to unleash extremely powerful long-range attacks… and because Old Blood themselves had ultimately not been magic users.
Due to the rule well known among magic users, that one can only possess a single awakened ability… the Dimension Management Bureau concluded that AbsoluteSafetyFirst could not possibly be strong in close-range combat between magic users.
They also believed this was why Korea’s Management Bureau protected AbsoluteSafetyFirst’s identity so thoroughly.
Because this line of reasoning seemed logical, they believed that if they could simply discover AbsoluteSafetyFirst’s identity, they could secretly infiltrate 16 Magic Assault Soldiers and eliminate him.
Even if all sixteen died in the process, it would not matter, so they planned the operation using expendable pieces to the fullest.
This was the limit of the thinking ordinary people inevitably possessed.
The world refused to acknowledge that AbsoluteSafetyFirst… no, Seon Yul’s abilities might far surpass ordinary common sense.
More precisely, it didn’t just refuse to acknowledge it.
It never even considered the possibility.
Thus, even now, the management bureaus of other countries classified AbsoluteSafetyFirst as a very powerful magic user, but believed that while he might have weaknesses in combat against other magic users, he possessed an extremely powerful and unique long-range attack ability.
Even the United States’ bureau, which had the most information about Seon Yul, could not escape this assessment.
Only South Korea vaguely suspected that Seon Yul’s awakened ability might be something that fell outside normal standards entirely.
But even that was merely speculation.
In any case, because of this reasoning, China had deployed the absurdly pitiful force of 16 Magic Assault Soldiers to eliminate Seon Yul.
Thanks to that, Seon Yul was able to deal with them very easily.
Of course, without Cheon Li Yu’s future foresight, Cheon Li Yu herself could have been in danger… even if Seon Yul was not.
Now that Cheon Li Yu had become a very important person to Seon Yul, that was a future he did not even want to imagine.
So Seon Yul responded quickly.
And as a result…
The Magic Assault Soldiers fell in an instant.
Only after eight of the sixteen had been quietly eliminated by Seon Yul did the remaining soldiers realize something was wrong.
They tried to gather together and respond as a group, but to Seon Yul, it was merely laughable resistance.
In the first place, Seon Yul hadn’t used assassination because he could not fight all sixteen Magic Assault Soldiers head-on.
He had simply done it that way because it was more convenient.
Even in direct combat, there was no chance he would lose to such pathetic Magic Assault Soldiers.
In the end, the dust gathered together was still just dust.
When the soldiers regrouped, Seon Yul showed them what overwhelming firepower capable of erasing an entire area looked like.
With just a minigun and a GAU-19, it took only about 30 seconds to erase the remaining eight Magic Assault Soldiers.
After opening Absolute Space and eliminating the ones who tried to make a last stand, Seon Yul noticed something strange.
Even after dying, they did not dissolve into smoke.
Tilting his head, he muttered,
‘But these guys were magic users… Why aren’t they turning into smoke and disappearing?’
It had already seemed strange that after dying, the Magic Assault Soldiers were simply collapsing like ordinary corpses.
Since Seon Yul didn’t know they were artificially created pseudo-magic users, it was natural for him to find it odd.
“Looks like… I’ll have to clean all this up.”
Cleaning up corpses wasn’t something Seon Yul particularly wanted to do. But leaving them here wasn’t an option either.
So he decided to dispose of them using the ‘Large-Capacity Infinite Trash Bin That Doesn’t Require Sorting,’ which he had bought from the Decoration Shop inside Absolute Space for 30 kg of mid-grade magic stones.
‘‘Is it… over?’’
Cheon Li Yu asked cautiously through telepathy.
Through her Divine Eye, she had witnessed the entire battle that had just occurred. Watching this fight had been somewhat difficult for her.
Unlike killing monsters or magic users, she had seen actual human bodies being torn apart and blood splattering.
It was only natural that it was hard for her.
‘‘Please rest for a bit. I’ll handle the cleanup.’’
After letting Cheon Li Yu rest, Seon Yul handled the aftermath alone.
Perhaps because of his personality… or perhaps because of his beliefs, Seon Yul did not feel much resistance to killing those who threatened his safety and cleaning up their bodies.
It simply wasn’t something pleasant to do.
***
“Are you feeling a bit better now?”
After finishing the cleanup, Seon Yul sat facing Cheon Li Yu, who had calmed down somewhat.
“Phew… I’m sorry. I should’ve helped you…”
“It’s okay. That must have been a rather difficult fight for you, Li Yu-nim, but you endured it well.”
“…I suppose I have to get used to this eventually, right?”
“There’s a very high chance that things like this will happen again in the future. So rather than just getting used to it, you’ll need to learn how to properly deal with it.”
“I suppose so. They won’t care about my circumstances…”
“It’s not just that they won’t care. They’ll keep trying to take your life, or capture you and force you to use your awakened ability like a slave.”
“…That’s frightening.”
“This is reality. From the moment you awakened and became a magic user, you became part of this world. You were simply avoiding it until now.”
Seon Yul spoke about reality, and Cheon Li Yu silently nodded.
Then she spoke again with a look of determination.
“Yes… I’ll try too.”
“I’ll help you.”
“But Seon Yul-nim, you’re not going to stop here, are you?”
“Of course… I have no intention of stopping. Repay kindness twice over, and repay grudges a hundredfold. That’s my style.”
“…May I do it with you?”
“Will you really be okay with that? What I’m about to do isn’t monster hunting.”
“From today onward, I’ll become someone who repays kindness twice over and grudges a hundredfold too.”
Seon Yul looked at Cheon Li Yu’s resolute expression for a moment before slowly speaking.
“Repaying grudges a hundredfold can be far more brutal than you think… Are you really okay with that?”
“Yes! From now on, I’m going to change everything to live as a magic user.”
Cheon Li Yu’s determination seemed firmer than he expected.
“Very well. Then let’s do it together.”
Being able to do even this together…
It meant that Cheon Li Yu had truly become Seon Yul’s precious comrade.
***
When Zhao Rui, the Intelligence Director of the Dimension Management Bureau, regained consciousness, everything had already been prepared.
Just like before, he was hanging upside down inside Absolute Space.
As someone responsible for an intelligence bureau, he grasped the situation quickly.
‘I’ve been captured…’
After understanding his situation while hanging upside down, Zhao Rui glanced at the man looking at him.
‘Who is that… Could it be AbsoluteSafetyFirst?’
Not only quick at assessing situations, Zhao Rui was also perceptive.
He quickly deduced Seon Yul’s identity.
“Judging by how your eyes are moving, it seems you’ve roughly figured out who I am.”
“…You won’t be able to get the information you want from me.”
“Well, everyone who ends up hanging there says the same thing. But not a single one has kept that promise. Every last one of them regretted it and eventually told me everything they knew.”
Seon Yul said this with a smile, simply stating the truth.
At that moment, Zhao Rui’s face stiffened dramatically.
‘It’s true… Everything he’s saying is true…’
“Instead of dying like the others, try experiencing a bit of hellish pain first. Regret it properly, then tell me everything. I don’t mind.”
‘That… is also true…’
Because of his ability, Zhao Rui instantly knew Seon Yul wasn’t bluffing.
He even possessed a level-based perk called “Sixth Sense of Truth,” which allowed him to indirectly feel the meaning contained in truthful words.
That sixth sense was now delivering him overwhelming terror.
A fear he had never felt in his life.
In that moment, Zhao Rui realized he would never be able to endure that terror in reality.
“Th-then… I’ll tell you everything… Could you kill me cleanly?”
Zhao Rui, who had become the head of an intelligence bureau thanks to his ability to distinguish lies from truth…
In the end, he chose a painless death.
If he was going to die anyway, he thought it would be better to die comfortably.
And for that comfortable death, he began telling everything he knew.
***
Through Zhao Rui, Seon Yul learned many things.
He even discovered that China’s Dimension Management Bureau had been behind Baekdu Bloodline targeting him in the past.
At this point, the grudge had become 100 × 100, roughly 10,000 times over.
At that level, there was no way he could simply leave the Dimension Management Bureau alone.
After granting Zhao Rui the painless death he requested for his cooperation and finishing all the cleanup, Seon Yul stood still and thought.
‘China… How should I properly punish them?’
Even though the opponent was effectively China’s management bureau, belonging to the second most powerful nation in the world, Seon Yul had no intention of holding back.
‘If nothing else, that director general can’t be left alive… And the Dimension Management Bureau itself needs to be crushed properly…’
Several methods of punishment have already come to mind.
‘But this means interfering with another nation’s management bureau… Should I at least inform our bureau in advance?’
The target of Seon Yul’s retaliation was essentially an entire nation.
So he realized that what he was about to do could provoke international conflict.
‘But if I warn them, they’ll probably ask me not to do it.’
Countries dislike conflicts with each other.
So there was a high chance they would ask him to refrain from carrying out the retaliation personally.
Of course, whether he accepted such a request would be up to Seon Yul… but he didn’t even want to hear it.
‘Who said it again? It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. I’ll just do it first and deal with the aftermath later.’
After thinking for a moment, Seon Yul decided he would inform the Korean bureau only after finishing the retaliation.
‘Then the only thing left is deciding how to carry it out.’
The scale of retaliation was not 100 times, but 10,000 times.
Therefore, Seon Yul had absolutely no intention of ending things by simply eliminating a few high-ranking officials of the Dimension Management Bureau.
“For starters… the headquarters? Let’s blow that up first.”
The Dimension Management Bureau’s main headquarters is in Beijing.
Destroying that place would be the beginning of this retaliation.
And once again…
This was only the beginning.
The retaliation would not end there.
This time, Seon Yul intended to show the entire world exactly what happens when someone dares to touch him.
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