Urban Vagabond: Reload

The Black Crow Gang boss was chewing his lip as he stared at his phone, irritation written all over his face.

“Why the hell isn’t this bastard calling back?”

It was because Black Crow Gang’s field captain, Kim Dongcheol, hadn’t contacted him for hours. The guys who went with him were the same.

“...Nothing went wrong, right?”

The boss muttered with a restless expression.

He’d warned Kim Dongcheol to be careful, but if the resistance was stronger than expected, something could’ve blown up.

Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon.

Young rising stars who’d kicked up a storm in the martial-artist license exam broadcast live to the world.

Public attention had cooled after the Sun and Moon Gate sect leader’s atrocities were exposed, but not among martial artists.

After Richard Han, the history of the Korean martial world might change once again!

That was the assessment of most of the big names in the Korean martial world.

But the Black Crow Gang boss was one of the people who couldn’t stand that dazzling talent.

That was why he’d ordered his subordinates to bring them in by any means necessary.

Before they became untouchable giants, he planned to make them taste the bitterness of life.

Right now, I can squeeze a proper ransom out of them.

They were young martial artists whose price had already skyrocketed.

There would be plenty of places willing to pay it, starting with the Martial Alliance.

Especially the Eight Great Sects. They’d try to recruit them even if it meant indebting themselves, and for that, they wouldn’t hesitate to pay a fortune—meaning those two were basically walking lottery tickets.

It’s insane, but...

Somewhere else, it would be impossible, but in Jeju’s martial world, it could be done.

Outsider martial artists had been strutting around all day, so both unorthodox and orthodox would be annoyed. Even if those guys vanished tomorrow, people would just assume someone had stepped in and made them behave.

More than anything, he had something to rely on.

Connections to an expert in the Tamra Alliance.

If I offer up half the ransom, they’ll hide it quietly. If I lie low like I’m dead for just a few years...

For a moment, he was happy, imagining the money that would let him eat and live for the rest of his life.

Then he snapped back to reality, still staring at a phone that wouldn’t ring, his brow folding hard.

“Dongcheol, you bastard... don’t tell me you got greedy and decided to pocket it all, then run off the island—!”

His anxiety turned into suspicion.

Like a boss of an unorthodox underworld gang, he didn’t trust a subordinate’s loyalty in the first place.

Wasn’t the reason he hadn’t gone personally that he wanted to cut off the tail if something unexpected happened?

“You ungrateful bastard! Go ahead and try to run. I’ll hunt you down to the end and throw you to the fish.”

He sprang to his feet, grinding his teeth as killing intent leaked out.

That was when—

KRAAANG!

A thunderous crash came from outside, something breaking apart. The boss immediately grabbed his blade and rushed out.

“What’s going on!”

The subordinates who’d stayed behind in the building poured out after him.

Black Crow Gang’s base was disguised as a prefabricated structure on a remote mountain road. A wire-mesh fence had been set up so people wouldn’t even come near.

And right then, a vehicle came charging in, smashing through that fence.

It was a van everyone recognized.

“Th-that’s our guys’ van, isn’t it?”

“The one Dongcheol went in...”

“Huh? It’s coming this way!”

SKREEEECH!

The van that burst in after destroying the fence swung into a loud, violent turn, then stopped in front of the building. Black tire marks were scorched into the ground, and the stink of burnt rubber rose into the air.

A moment later, the doors opened, and Shin Kangheon and Kim Bokja jumped out like they were escaping.

“AAAH! If I ever get back into a car that lunatic is driving, I’m not human anymore!”

“I-I’m still alive, right?”

PYAAAK...

Apricot trembled in Kim Bokja’s arms as she stared around with a dazed expression.

Last, I got out of the van.

As I walked past the Black Crow Gang martial artists, scanning them, I asked calmly—like someone asking for directions.

“Is this Black Mark Gang?”

“...It’s Black Crow Gang!”

“Y-you—what the hell are you bastards doing!”

Black Crow Gang’s martial artists shouted as they drew their weapons.

But the only one who recognized my face instantly—the boss—had a rigid expression.

I opened the back door and dragged out the unconscious Kim Dongcheol, tossing him down right in front of the boss.

My actions were rough, but my tone was very polite.

“You sent the wrong package, so I brought it back as a return. I also have a few things I’d like to ask while I’m here.”

“Ha...”

The boss glared at me with a look like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

It made sense that Kim Dongcheol and the others got handled—most of his subordinates were only third-rate or second-rate in terms of martial arts.

But the fact that I didn’t have a single scratch on me was beyond explanation.

Those idiots brought a pile of poison and sleeping agents and still got folded without doing anything? And they even exposed our base’s location?

The boss’s killing intent rose slowly, thickening around him. His eyes rolled white as he stared at me.

“You cocky little brats. Do you think you can come here and walk out alive?”

The eyes of an unorthodox martial artist who’d spent his life soaking in blood were so chilling most people couldn’t even meet them.

Black Crow Gang was just one of the many mid-to-small unorthodox gangs in Jeju’s martial underworld, but the boss himself was a real expert who’d learned proper martial arts.

It had been an ambush, but he’d once taken out a mainland first-rate expert in a single strike and fed him to the fish.

SHIIING.

He drew his blade and strode toward me.

“Getting praised by everyone already made you think you’re some unparalleled master, huh? Looks like those guys are all still breathing... Heh-heh. Haven’t you killed anyone yet?”

With that sticky killing intent hitting me head-on, I trembled faintly, as if fear had locked me in place.

“Ugh...”

Maybe it looked like I was terrified. The Black Crow Gang martial artists who’d been tense started getting cocky again.

“Heh-heh. What? Now that you’re really here, you can’t even open your mouth?”

“You should’ve been running for the plane—yet you came looking for us?”

“You think you can look down on the boss because you dropped a few guys like Dongcheol?!”

To the boss and his men, we probably looked like baby martial artists who’d come here on some impulsive sense of justice.

As if they could even imagine it.

That I’d killed more people than anyone here.

That Shin Kangheon had the guts to charge straight into the Sun and Moon Gate sect leader’s killing intent without backing down.

That Kim Bokja had been making money dealing with unorthodox martial artists since she was a child.

I trembled for a while, lips twitching a few times—then I forced my mouth open. The boss leaned in, curious what I’d say.

“Open.”

“...What?”

In that moment, the fear on my face vanished, and I lunged like lightning, grabbing the boss’s face with one hand.

A perfect ambush no one saw coming.

“Guhhk!”

His eyes bulged in shock between my fingers. It was fast enough that even a first-rate expert would’ve gotten caught flat-footed.

“Killing a lot of people—do you think that’s something to be proud of? The more time passes, the more ashamed I get.”

After subduing him in a single move, I spoke casually to Shin Kangheon and Kim Bokja behind me.

“We don’t need to clean up here, so...”

“Let’s not hear the rest.”

“If that guy isn’t a villain, then who the hell is?”

PYAAK!

At the three of us bickering, I let out a short laugh, then slammed the boss straight into the building behind him.

KRAAANG—!

A partition wall shattered, but I didn’t care. Leaving the gang’s martial artists frozen in panic because their boss had been taken, I headed inside Black Crow Gang.

As Shin Kangheon’s “WRAAAH!” battle cry faded behind me, I dragged the groaning boss deeper in.

AAAH! GAAAH! S-save me!

Outside, shouting, screams, and a chilling wail like a ghost’s cry began to echo.

Hearing it, the boss grew more and more terrified.

A moment later, I entered the boss’s office, shut the door, and looked around. Unlike the shabby exterior, the inside was decorated with items that looked fairly expensive.

“You said you ordered your subordinate to drag us in. Were you planning to kidnap us and squeeze a ransom out of us?”

“H-how did you...”

It was like I’d crawled into his head and come back out. The boss’s spirit completely collapsed.

I shrugged like it was nothing.

“Sure, that’s one possibility. You wanted to grab a big score, then live easy for the rest of your life with the ransom. But...”

I sat him down in the chair he probably used every day. Since I’d pinned his pressure point when I restrained him, he couldn’t move an inch.

I put both hands on the desk and stared him down, eyes indifferent—like he was an object I could break whenever I felt like it.

“Because of you, our vacation almost got ruined. What are you going to do about it?”

Gulp...

I didn’t say I’d kill him. I didn’t threaten torture. I didn’t even flaunt killing intent or intimidate him openly.

And yet, the boss felt a pressure and fear so intense he would’ve preferred getting tortured.

Th-this isn’t someone I can touch.

The survival instinct he’d sharpened over years in the unorthodox underworld was screaming at him.

One wrong word here and he’d end up with a horrific death he couldn’t even imagine.

This wasn’t some justice-filled baby from the orthodox world.

This was someone who’d killed his type countless times.

If he didn’t show the utmost sincerity, he’d end up exactly like that.

“I-I’ll compensate you. And if there’s anything you want, I’ll give you anything...”

“I’d like to hear exactly how you plan to compensate me.”

Maybe it was his last bit of pride—he stubbornly kept speaking informally to someone far younger than him. But at the same time, he spilled information I hadn’t even asked for, like the location of a secret vault he’d hidden.

I didn’t bother refusing his “generosity.”

There’s no need to make my real purpose obvious.

If he misunderstood, the misunderstanding only benefited me.

After listening for a while, I threw out a different bait on purpose, to keep him confused.

“One thing I’m curious about—how hard is it for an outside force to establish itself in Jeju?”

“...!”

Right on cue, he flinched in shock.

He probably thought I was planning to plant myself in Jeju’s underworld.

He’s too scared to think straight.

There was no reason at all for a promising orthodox young martial artist to do that, but he didn’t have the presence of mind to reach that conclusion. He’d be making up a plausible reason inside his head instead.

“No answer?”

“I-I’ll talk! First, to establish yourself, you have to get permission from the Tamra Alliance...”

Useful information spilled from his mouth—how Jeju’s unorthodox underworld was structured, the recent political climate, and how it connected to the Tamra Alliance.

While I kept tossing out questions, I brought up the real point, casually, like it was an afterthought.

“Come to think of it, I’ve heard rumors that swordsmen around here have been disappearing lately. Do you know anything about that?”