Urban Vagabond: Reload

KRRRRRK!

With a single sweep of the Black Night Gang boss’s hand, the concrete floor gouged away as easily as tofu.

“How many times must I repeat myself? Did I not tell you to bring the Skybreaker Gate sect leader out at once?”

Her hair billowed through the air, radiating a frost-edged aura. As a supreme master of the unorthodox martial world revealed her killing intent, a suffocating presence pressed down over the entire area.

Sssss—

Scarlet force extended over the Black Night Gang boss’s fingers, curled like a hawk’s talons. Those same fingers, which had carved several trenches into the pavement before the Skybreaker Gate building, rose toward the plaque above the front entrance.

“Will he crawl out if I tear that sign down?”

The Black Night Gang’s elite stood in disciplined ranks behind her, their restrained killing intent on full display.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Black Night Gang boss! Do you have any idea where you are—?!”

Skybreaker Gate elders and martial artists rushed over at the emergency alarm, moving to block the Black Night Gang boss’s path.

But they were nowhere near enough to restrain her. She demanded that they bring out the Skybreaker Gate sect leader while causing havoc, and the elders could only watch in a cold sweat as their sect’s surroundings were wrecked.

“What in the world is all this commotion—?!”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader dropped from above alongside a thunderous voice.

BOOM—!

As though he had leapt directly down from a great height, the floor beneath his feet collapsed into a circular crater and split apart with a sharp crack.

His eyes flared like a tiger’s as he glared at the Black Night Gang boss.

She merely snorted.

“Brother Kang. Did you crawl out here after taking a nap? I’ve been waiting outside for ages.”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader erupted at the sight of her casually addressing him by surname.

“You corrupt-path rabble dare cause a disturbance before the gates of a prestigious sect like Skybreaker Gate? I’ll make an example of every last one of you today!”

Yet beneath that razor-edged warning, he was concealing his panic.

Why has that old monster suddenly come for me...?

The orthodox and unorthodox factions were like water and oil. Even so, people at the very top of the martial world were bound to know one another, whether they liked it or not.

Especially old masters like the Black Night Gang boss, who had survived for so many years. They were opponents one wanted to avoid whenever possible, because there was no telling what lay beneath the surface.

Even now, he could not begin to guess why she had suddenly sought him out and begun making such a scene.

“Have I come somewhere I’m not allowed? After all the years we’ve known each other, this is a terribly cold reception.”

“What nonsense is that?! I have never formed any friendship with the ringleader of corrupt-path filth!”

As the Skybreaker Gate sect leader coldly drew the line, the Black Night Gang boss smiled meaningfully and strode toward him.

“Why are you so angry? You look like a man with something to hide.”

“...It seems age has robbed you of your senses. Do you really think you’ll walk away from this unharmed?”

At his low, growling threat, the Black Night Gang boss looked at him as though he had said something absurd.

“What exactly have I done? I may have damaged a little public property, but I haven’t killed or hurt a single person.”

“Ha. The nerve of you...”

She was right. The Black Night Gang boss had not harmed anyone.

She had arrived with subordinates as if she meant to raid Skybreaker Gate, yet in truth, she had only damaged part of the building and the surrounding roads.

“When the police arrive, I’ll go quietly. If they fine me, I’ll pay whatever they ask. But I still have something to say.”

“What are you talking—”

Before the Skybreaker Gate sect leader could respond, the Black Night Gang boss raised her voice, infused with internal energy, and shouted.

“When exactly do you intend to repay the money you borrowed—?!”

“M-Money? What money?! What kind of insane slander is this, you deranged old woman?!”

His neck veins bulged as the other party made an absurd accusation. But the Black Night Gang boss’s voice had already boomed across several hundred meters.

She had been causing trouble for some time now, yet there was still no sign of the police.

When a force on the level of the Five Great Unorthodox Sects moved around in broad daylight, the police, military, and media would all be on alert.

But the Black Night Gang had not gone after a private business or civilian group. They had gone after Skybreaker Gate, one of the Eight Great Sects.

In other words, this was a dispute between martial sects that did not involve civilians.

“The government and the martial world don’t interfere in each other’s affairs. A tradition with a long history.”

Kim Muhyuk, who had come outside at some point, muttered as he watched from afar.

He smiled in satisfaction as the falsely accused Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s face shifted from red to blue.

“As long as civilians aren’t touched, the authorities generally won’t step in. But that doesn’t mean they’ll simply turn a blind eye. Especially when an orthodox sect on the level of the Eight Great Sects is involved.”

Kim Muhyuk paused, then turned to the side with a friendly smile.

“You can already feel plenty of eyes watching us, can’t you, senior brother?”

“...”

Yang Seonu watched the unfolding situation without expression.

As time passed, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s face grew increasingly anxious. He could feel presences observing the area from afar, and he could see several cameras as well.

What in the world is that old monster trying to accomplish by doing this to me?!

He was furious and wronged enough to go mad, but he knew that the longer this situation dragged on, the worse it would become for him.

He needed to drive the Black Night Gang boss away as quickly as possible.

The problem was that she showed no intention of budging.

...But provoking a genuine fight with her carried far too much risk.

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader bit down hard on his lip.

[You have nothing to gain by crossing me, either. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but withdraw quietly. If there is something you want, we can discuss it privately.]

Growing desperate, he sent the Black Night Gang boss a private transmission, asking her to withdraw.

Surely this was a burden for the Black Night Gang as well.

Unless she was prepared to completely turn one of the Eight Great Sects into an enemy, there was no reason to create such needless resentment...

“Would you look at this shameless bastard? The man who borrowed money is threatening to kill me through voice transmission!”

Instead, the Black Night Gang boss made an even bigger scene.

She glanced at Kim Muhyuk in the distance and raised her voice higher, as though she intended for everyone to hear.

“I lent you that enormous sum on the strength of your word alone. Yet you haven’t repaid it even after all these years. I stayed quiet because I didn’t want to make this a bigger matter, and now you take me for a fool?”

The sect leader of Skybreaker Gate had borrowed money from the Black Night Gang, one of the Five Great Unorthodox Sects, and failed to repay it?

How much could it have been?

And what exactly had he borrowed it for?

It was the kind of juicy gossip every domestic media outlet would descend on in a frenzy.

When he imagined the scandal that would follow, humiliation and rage finally pushed the Skybreaker Gate sect leader past his limit.

“You devil! Who are you slandering?! When have I ever borrowed money from anyone?! You dare humiliate me with such shameless lies—!”

FWOOOOSH!

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s navy-blue robe swelled in an instant, and a savage aura surged from him as though he might strike at any moment.

Then, at that very moment—

[Your younger cousin. The perverted little freak with those disgusting tastes. Sword Demon caught him and killed him, didn’t he?]

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader flinched.

Unable to draw his sword, he froze in place.

The Black Night Gang boss’s sly voice echoed in his ear through a private transmission.

[I found something like a diary he wrote before he died. Your name was written in it as well.]

Cold sweat ran down the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s back.

It had to be a lie. There could not possibly be such a diary.

After his cousin died, he had found and burned every piece of related evidence. It was something even Sword Demon did not know.

But if—if that was true...

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s face went pale as a corpse.

[Tsk, tsk. I almost pity you. Of all people, you had to make an enemy of him.]

“...Him? Who are you talking about?!”

Leaving behind words he could not possibly make sense of, the Black Night Gang boss turned away without hesitation.

“I’ll give you one last chance. Fifteen days. If you don’t repay the debt within that time, I’ll come again. Remember that.”

After the Black Night Gang boss left, police and reporters began arriving at Skybreaker Gate to determine what had happened.

“It’s all a frame-up! That crafty corrupt-path devil is slandering me!”

The Skybreaker Gate sect leader struggled desperately to clear himself of the accusation, but his half-dazed expression only deepened the reporters’ suspicion.

Within hours, articles about him would begin flooding out.

Kim Muhyuk and Yang Seonu watched the entire scene from beginning to end.

“He should have just drawn his sword. The Skybreaker Gate sect leader hesitated and only made himself look more suspicious. What do you think?”

“...That was impressive.”

After a moment of silence, Yang Seonu turned to Kim Muhyuk with open admiration.

“The way you planned it was meticulous. When did you put this together?”

“A few hours ago.”

Kim Muhyuk answered as though it were nothing, and Yang Seonu looked genuinely surprised.

“Really?”

The sect leader of Skybreaker Gate had been dragged into an enormous scandal overnight.

Since he had never actually borrowed money, he might eventually clear himself. But an image once shattered could never be completely restored.

And naturally, this was not the end.

“You framed someone else, so you should experience the same thing yourself. That’s basic, isn’t it?”

After hearing about the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s cousin from Yeo Pilgeuk, Kim Muhyuk had gone to find the Black Night Gang boss.

“...Hm. That’s quite a good plan.”

The Black Night Gang boss had willingly cooperated with Kim Muhyuk’s plan, since it would deal a devastating blow to one of the Eight Great Sects.

There is no diary, of course. But if someone like the Black Night Gang boss—someone who specializes in leveraging another person’s weakness to threaten them—says it, he has every reason to doubt.

And after seeing the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s reaction earlier, Kim Muhyuk became certain of one more thing.

That he was the same kind of trash as his cousin.

Even if he had nothing to do with the Heavenly Demon Cult, he was an animal not worth sparing.

By now, the Skybreaker Gate sect leader’s thoughts would be so tangled that his head felt ready to explode.

That was when—

“This... actually helps. Thanks.”

Kim Muhyuk looked over, wondering what Yang Seonu meant.

Yang Seonu was smiling brightly.

“Because of you, I think I’ll be able to become sect leader sooner.”

The light in his eyes and the smile on his face made it clear that he truly believed it.

That once the sect leader was driven out, the position would naturally become his.

As though this situation had nothing to do with him.

As though he had not the slightest reason to doubt it.

“Yang Seonu.”

Kim Muhyuk called his name quietly.

Yang Seonu was a man who severely lacked empathy, guilt, shame, and pity.

“Didn’t we agree that you would call me senior brother?”

“It depends on my mood.”

But that did not make him a being without emotions.

If anything, because he was so extremely self-centered, losing what belonged to him—or having it taken away—would make him feel a terrible rage and deprivation.

“I looked into you a little. At first, I thought you betrayed Master simply because you wanted to live comfortably. But you worked incredibly hard to become an elder of Skybreaker Gate.”

“...”

Yang Seonu did not answer.

His lips were still curved in a smile, but his eyes, fixed on Kim Muhyuk, were full of wariness and killing intent.

“But what do you think would happen if Skybreaker Gate abandoned you?”

Yang Seonu’s awkward smile cracked apart once more.

With a grotesque smile on his face, he said,

“You dream big, junior brother. It would be easier to kill me.”

“Both are easy for me. So later, I’ll give you a choice.”

“...A choice?”

Kim Muhyuk nodded, walked past Yang Seonu, and spoke.

“At the very end, you can choose whether to die as the man who betrayed his master or the man who betrayed his sect.”

“...”

Until Kim Muhyuk disappeared completely from sight, Yang Seonu remained where he was for a long time, wearing a chilling smile.