Chapter 25. Back Alley (4)
What was the most important thing in the Back Alley?
Money was obviously important.
The people living there still needed to eat.
And because the area received little proper government management, prices were absurdly high.
A single bowl of soup could cost fifty thousand won.
But there was something more important than money.
Strength.
With strength, you could eat the fifty-thousand-won soup without paying.
If you were exceptionally strong, you could join an organization.
Then you could eat your soup while charging the restaurant protection money at the same time.
But even in a lawless zone, people couldn't prove their strength by killing someone every single time.
So the Back Alley developed a much easier method to measure power.
A clear method that only worked among Hunters who had committed the crime of murder.
WHOOOOOSH!
Killing intent.
Nobody ended up in the Back Alley because of a minor offense.
Everyone here had harmed someone for one reason or another.
That was why Kim Kyung-il was now treating Kim Si-hyeon like a god.
“I-I'll guide you myself...!”
This killing intent is insane.
Kim Kyung-il had lived in the Back Alley for twenty years.
His job was inspecting countless criminal Hunters entering and leaving.
But even he had seen only three people in his life who possessed killing intent this intense.
The bosses of the three organizations controlling the Ganghwa Back Alley.
Kim Kyung-il knew all three by face.
I've definitely never seen this man before.
“...A-Are you perhaps from a Back Alley in another region?”
Kim Kyung-il carefully asked.
“...”
One cold look from Kim Si-hyeon made him hurriedly close his mouth.
The killing intent felt like hands tightening around his throat.
Like his skin was burning.
He's wearing an Association-marked combat suit, so I thought he was Special Division...!
Then realization appeared on Kim Kyung-il's face.
Of course! He killed a Special Division Hunter and stole the uniform!
A lunatic openly wearing trophies taken from a dead Special Division Hunter.
Oddly enough, that made Kim Kyung-il feel much more comfortable.
This was the Back Alley.
Following an Association Hunter would be humiliating.
Following an insane criminal was much easier.
The Back Alley had rules.
If this man were truly an Association Hunter, Kim Kyung-il would be obligated to resist with his life.
But if he was simply another criminal living in the same mud...
That changed everything.
And Kim Kyung-il was certain.
“F-From here onward... this is the Ganghwa Back Alley!”
This man smelled more like the Back Alley than anyone Kim Kyung-il had ever met.
Far more than anyone.
“What are you doing?”
“What?”
Kim Kyung-il and Choi Yoon-seo both stopped at the entrance.
Kim Si-hyeon had already stepped inside.
He tilted his head and looked back.
“I need to take medicine first.”
The Back Alley was saturated with mana far beyond levels suitable for ordinary people.
Normal civilians could fall unconscious within hours.
Even decent Hunters struggled to endure it without neutralizing medicine.
That was why Kim Kyung-il and Choi Yoon-seo had stopped to take their neutralizers.
But...
“...? Are you sick?”
Kim Si-hyeon looked completely fine.
He genuinely seemed to be asking if this level of mana saturation was enough to make them ill.
This doesn't affect him at all?
No.
If anything...
He looks more comfortable.
Kim Kyung-il had heard of rare Hunters born and raised inside the Back Alley who reacted like this.
Choi Yoon-seo calmly swallowed his neutralizer as though he'd expected it.
What the hell did that crazy Golden Goblin bring here?
Kim Kyung-il trembled at the unfathomable darkness surrounding Kim Si-hyeon and barely managed to finish taking his medicine.
“Let's go.”
Kim Si-hyeon walked confidently into the Back Alley wearing a Special Division uniform without taking any neutralizer.
Choi Yoon-seo followed carefully behind.
For the first time, Kim Kyung-il finally understood how the Golden Goblin felt.
I'll give him anything he asks for if I can survive.
“Hurry.”
“Y-Yes!”
Kim Kyung-il quickly followed Kim Si-hyeon.
Inside a Back Alley casino...
“Damn it!”
A huge man slammed his fist against the table as if trying to break it.
“I lost again?”
He glared at the dealer with bloodshot eyes.
This man was Yang Chi-seok.
His muscles bulged beneath his shirt, which was soaked in sweat.
He looked ready to beat the dealer to death.
But eventually, he had no choice but to stand.
“Fuck!”
This was the Ganghwa Back Alley.
Even complete lunatics had to watch themselves here.
Criminal organizations controlled the area.
And possibly, standing behind those organizations, was the Destruction Society.
Making enemies of them was suicide, even for criminal Hunters.
“Not playing anymore?”
The dealer's mocking words made Yang Chi-seok glare back.
Then he left the casino.
“Shitty city...!”
The air stank.
The overwhelming mana density made breathing difficult.
The weather was hot.
The sea air made everything damp.
How... how did I end up like this?
Yang Chi-seok had once risen all the way to become the Fourth Raid Team Leader of the Baeksu Guild.
How had he fallen into becoming a gambling addict in the Back Alley?
He could barely remember.
His life had been on an unstoppable rise.
“Haah... haah...”
A wave of pain hit.
Yang Chi-seok leaned against a wall and reached inside his clothes.
He pulled out a bottle of Illusion of Death.
A poison banned from legal sale.
A drug that numbed the senses and clouded the mind.
Most Hunters couldn't safely consume it at all.
But only after drinking Illusion of Death did Yang Chi-seok's expression become relaxed.
“Haah... haah...”
It was because of the unpleasant sensation and pain constantly rising from deep inside his body.
As the drug took effect, his trembling hands slowly stopped.
The thoughts filling his mind became quiet.
One by one, his senses and reason faded away.
A single name remained.
“Hehehe... Choi Yoon-seo.”
His last remaining source of money.
That fool would soon arrive carrying a thick bundle of cash.
Once Yang Chi-seok received it, he would go back to that arrogant dealer and show him who was superior.
“But...”
Yang Chi-seok muttered sluggishly.
“That bastard... why is he alive?”
There had been some reason Choi Yoon-seo wasn't supposed to still be alive.
But after abusing Illusion of Death for so long, Yang Chi-seok's mind had deteriorated.
His memories were full of holes, almost like dementia.
“If he's alive...”
Stop.
