Chapter 16. The Chivalrous Hero
"Did you kill Machil?"
Gi Dae-hyo spoke again to Dong Bong-su, who gave no answer.
Looking to the side, Gi Man-ji was making a startled expression at Gi Dae-hyo's sudden words. If he were an ordinary murderer, there would have been some kind of expression screaming 'I'm a killer' on his face.
Of course, Dong Bong-su's expression did not change.
Gi Dae-hyo quietly stared into Dong Bong-su's dull eyes.
Eyes with a wavering focus, foolish eyes that seemed to be roaming in all directions as if terrified by Gi Dae-hyo's appearance. Even so, Gi Dae-hyo persistently peered into Dong Bong-su's eyes.
Gi Dae-hyo's gaze, as if he were about to pluck Dong Bong-su's eyes out, looked as though it were saying this.
You are the culprit. No, you must be the culprit!
Gi Dae-hyo had spent his entire life dealing with law enforcement and information, and he lived with the pride that in this field he surpassed even the Beggars' Sect, the Hao Sect, or the authorities. All day today, he had visited every location where the Suicide Plague had occurred.
The results...….
None.
His son, Gi Man-ji, told him that perhaps all of this had truly been caused by the plague, but Gi Dae-hyo flatly denied it.
If it were a plague, shouldn't there be traces of it? Black spots, a rotten stench—wasn't there not a single sign of any plague?
It could not be a plague.
Then if it was not a plague.
Who was the culprit? Who had to be the culprit?
He had inspected every location, and without exception, each crime scene was a sealed room just like that room at the Bongyang Inn. There were no traces of intrusion, only a suicide left behind. It felt artificial. Too perfect—far too perfect. As if, if a god existed, that god itself had committed the murders.
Once more, he stared into Dong Bong-su's pupils. Once again, those foolish eyes that made it impossible to tell what he was looking at.
'No. There's no way someone like that would have eyes like these.'
Gi Dae-hyo had come to see Dong Bong-su to confirm the final possibility.
Not only had he meticulously examined the scenes, but he had also met everyone who had stayed in the rooms next to the sealed rooms where the suicides occurred. Everyone except Dong Bong-su.
Before coming here, Dong Bong-su had already been the only suspect left.
And now.
Even that last suspect had been cleared of suspicion.
"Hoo—. Let's go."
"Yes? Ah, yes. Father."
Hearing Gi Dae-hyo's words, Gi Man-ji left the stable with an expression that showed he had no idea what was going on.
Before leaving the stable, Gi Dae-hyo turned his head and looked once more at Dong Bong-su.
'As expected, it's not him...…'
Hands and feet that looked like they would snap if stepped on, a chest that seemed like it would shatter if handled carelessly. That body was absolutely not one that had trained in the bone-shrinking technique. No, to begin with, there was no way he was a hidden master of an unorthodox faction.
A body even weaker than the average neighborhood ruffian. That was Gi Dae-hyo's assessment of Dong Bong-su.
"Hoo—."
Leaving behind one final sigh, Gi Dae-hyo disappeared just like that.
He probably would not fall asleep easily tonight. On the other hand, Dong Bong-su—the so-called 'Suicide Plague carrier' and the one who had slaughtered gangs of ruffians—would fall into a deep sleep beneath the same roof.
Dong Bong-su's eyes followed Gi Dae-hyo's back until he completely left the stable. Through the open door, thick moonlight poured in, licking over Dong Bong-su's clear yet bizarre eyes as it passed.
What a shame. Gi Dae-hyo should have seen those eyes.
Those eyes of Dong Bong-su, darkly shadowed even under the moonlight.
Creeeak. Thud.
The stable once again became a silent world of darkness.
Dong Bong-su's shadowed eyes were now able to hide their light within that pitch-black space.
For a brief while, he remained in that posture, organizing in his mind the new rule he had been working on earlier. Then, as always, he lay his body down on his straw-covered nest.
"It looks like things will get busier starting tomorrow."
A lot of new prey had appeared.
On a night when the moonlight shimmered eerily.
The Suicide Plague vanished from Bongyang without a trace.
And starting tomorrow, a new killing wind would sweep through Bongyang.
***
New Murim Online Rule 4: When taking items out of the inventory, Dong Bong-su can extract them using any part of his body.
New Murim Online Rule 5: When leveling up, white light bursts from the body, and all wounds on the body are healed. At the same time, all stats increase slightly.
New Murim Online Rule 6: Skills have a proficiency system applied. In other words, the more a skill is used, the more proficient it becomes.
New Murim Online Rule 7: The passive skill piercing vision identifies dangerous factors that approach within a 20-meter radius of Dong Bong-su and informs him.
***
Not long after the Suicide Plague disappeared.
A rumor like this began circulating in Bongyang.
– An anonymous chivalrous hero has appeared and is punishing the black faction members!
Black faction members referred to the operatives belonging to the black faction. Ordinary civilians often called them by another name: stinking trash.
No matter how much they praised themselves with titles like back-alley chivalrous heroes or shadow guardians, trash was still trash.
The black faction members said, "Illegality is our own survival rule!"
They spewed flashy nonsense that even a dog suffering from summer heat would not bark at, while gripping the back alleys and markets of Bongyang—human scum like that were the black faction members.
The people of the market carried on their livelihoods, and in order to avoid starving to death, they had no choice but to continue paying money under the pretense of protection fees to the black faction. Inside, dissatisfaction overflowed, ready to spill out at any moment—but what could they do?
Poverty is a sin. Weakness is a sin. And yet, being forced to endure and live on is the greatest sin of all.
And then.
One day, the black faction members suddenly began to die. At first, when one or two died, people thought it was merely an internal power struggle within the black faction. But one became two, two became four, four became eight...
And then, eventually.
Among the Three-Colored Black Factions that ruled Bongyang's back alleys, the White Tiger Group and the Red Wolf Sect were annihilated, leaving only the Black Snake Association.
People did not hesitate to call him a chivalrous hero. They praised him as a true hero who practiced justice from the shadows.
Rumors spread rapidly, and even whispers arose claiming that the Suicide Plague had also been eliminated by the anonymous chivalrous hero.
Before long, every act of chivalry occurring within Bongyang City was being credited to him.
Now, whether the rumors were true or not no longer mattered. He had already become a perfect heroic figure in the hearts of the people of Bongyang.
People were still curious about him, but no one knew his true identity, and not a single person had even seen his shadow.
Thus, people called him.
The anonymous chivalrous hero.
***
The anonymous chivalrous hero went out into the night streets again today to carry out justice.
He headed toward Nakwon Village, the last remaining crime-ridden area of Bongyang. Nakwon Village was located at the northern edge of Bongyang, a place where crumbling abandoned houses clung together like an ant nest. It was called a village in name only; in reality, it was a breeding ground for all kinds of evils and a core den of the Black Snake Association.
It was a frightening place that few would pass through even during the day unless they were black faction members, so what more needed to be said about a night like this.
A desolate atmosphere pressed down upon the entire village.
Was it an illusion?
The suffocatingly dense air felt even more bleak than usual.
The anonymous chivalrous hero quietly seeped into the ominous Nakwon Village.
At some point.
"Ugh!"
A short scream announcing the start of justice echoed through Nakwon Village.
"He's here! Hit him! Hit him! Kill him!"
As if they had been waiting for that very moment, black shadows appeared all at once throughout Nakwon Village, causing an uproar. They were the Black Snake Association's black faction members. They had been waiting for the anonymous chivalrous hero to appear.
Now that he had shown himself, they had to kill him with everything they had, just to survive.
"Uaaah!"
"Kill him!"
"You bastard! Die!"
Spitting all kinds of curses befitting black faction members, they charged like lightning toward the place where the first scream had come from.
There stood a single slender, masked figure dressed differently from them. That must be the anonymous chivalrous hero.
As if he had anticipated their appearance, the moment they showed themselves, the anonymous chivalrous hero charged straight at them.
Slash! Slice! Thrust!
Cutting, slashing, thrusting.
With just a few concise movements, more than ten black faction members of the Black Snake Association collapsed to the ground, spraying blood. The corpses lying under the moonlight soon grew cold.
The anonymous chivalrous hero did not stop there, but continued running forward, slaughtering every black faction member in his path. Dozens of remaining black faction members followed behind him, swinging swords, sabers, and spears.
"Die!"
Thud.
A tall man at the front thrust his spear into the anonymous chivalrous hero's back. A faint sound of air escaping—had he pierced the hero's heart?
"...…Huh?"
No.
That was nothing more than his own wishful thinking. The one who died was the man who had thrust the spear. In his eyes rose a light of utter confusion, as if he could not understand what had happened.
"Guhk...."
A low groan leaked from his mouth, but it could not fully escape. Because a sword deeply embedded in his mouth was slicing up through his Adam's apple.
Before going to the underworld, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
"How did a sword come out from the back of my head...."
But even that stray thought could not continue to the end. The sword lodged in his neck split his brain in half.
His comrades were still some distance away, so they did not see at all how he died. That was their fatal mistake. If they had been able to see it, they would have realized that their opponent was attacking using a bizarre irregular method rather than any normal technique.
Thud.
The remaining black faction members leapt over the tall man's head as it collapsed into a corpse and rushed at the anonymous chivalrous hero.
"Uaaaargh!"
Did they think that shouting loudly would make their opponent fall on his own? They screamed like mad and surged toward the anonymous chivalrous hero.
Slash! Slice! Thrust!
The same concise sounds that the anonymous chivalrous hero's sword had made earlier echoed through the area. The difference was that this time, the sounds were made by the black faction members' weapons, not his sword.
"D-done! We caught the anonymous chivalrous hero!"
They were excited.
There was a clear sensation in their hands, and in front of them stood someone wearing a mask. Weapons swung and thrust by the black faction members were embedded all over that person's body. Blood poured out like a waterfall from the masked man's body. With that amount of blood loss, there was no way he could survive.
"D-did we kill him!?"
Someone among them said that. Most of those around agreed. But one sharp-eyed individual noticed something different.
"N-no! Th-there's a Black Snake Association mark on his shoulder!"
At that, the other black faction members focused on the masked man's shoulder.
Sure enough, between the torn sleeve, a black snake tattoo could be seen. It was the initiation tattoo engraved when first joining the Black Snake Association.
Which meant—
"Sh-shit!"
Almost simultaneously, curses burst from the mouths of the black faction members. And that became their collective final words.
Swish.
A flashing sword light swiftly swept across all of their necks.
Thud.
A thin crack suddenly appeared beneath the neck of the corpse they had thought was the anonymous chivalrous hero. Soon, the space between the crack slowly widened. And finally, the masked man's head left his neck and set off on a journey across the ground.
Thududududud...….
At the same time, the heads of all the black faction members fell to the ground in the exact same way.
Because their necks had been severed in an instant, life still clung to them. Their eyes were still trembling violently.
Roll—roll—roll.
The head of the masked man they had mistaken for the anonymous chivalrous hero rolled into the center where all their heads lay. Perhaps due to the impact of hitting the ground, the mask had already come off.
The head glared at them with its tongue sticking slightly out, as if mocking them all. Even with their heads severed, the black faction members recognized the masked man's face.
It was a face they all knew well.
He was Gang Hae, their leader who guarded the entrance of Nakwon Village, and the very man who had screamed first.
How...….
All of them carried that question in their hearts as they met their end.
After hosting the meeting of heads, the anonymous chivalrous hero quietly moved on toward his next target.