Chapter 55 – Shattered World

Se-min closed his eyes with an old iron sword resting on his shoulder.

Endlessly, the corpses of magic beasts lay scattered around him.

Tearing open a bread wrapper that had fallen on the ground, he popped a piece into his mouth. The dry texture made him thirsty, but there was no proper drinking water. After moistening the bread with saliva and swallowing it, he rose from his spot.

His energy perception caught people.

Two separate groups of people were running in different directions.

Se-min rose and headed toward the closer point.

His figure turned into a light, kicking off and soaring over the city. A Raider and several people were being chased by magic beasts. Even at a glance, the swarm of magic beasts pursuing them numbered in the dozens.

When Se-min landed on the ground, the magic beasts were blown away by the shockwave. The startled gazes of the people pinned on him. Not caring, Se-min swung his sword and slaughtered the magic beasts.

The trajectory of the iron sword had no obstacles, and the cumbersome bodies of the magic beasts shattered and scattered like grains of sand swept away by the great ocean.

“T-Thank you.”

Se-min did not even receive their gratitude and immediately charged toward the other point.

It was a close call.

When Se-min arrived, the maws of the magic beasts had already swallowed several people, and they were reaching out toward the remaining ones.

Se-min’s body accelerated.

He drove the sword into the magic beast’s neck. Leaving a bizarre death rattle, the magic beast collapsed. Before its body could even touch the ground, Se-min moved forward and further forward, cutting down the magic beasts one by one. Crushing the teeth and talons flying from all directions, he drove his blade into the spine of a fleeing creature.

Having killed every single magic beast, Se-min looked up at the sky and caught his breath.

The sky was dark gray.

He closed his eyes.

He was tired.

Opening his eyes again, he looked around.

There was nothing living in front of Se-min. People were killed by the magic beasts, and the magic beasts were killed by him.

It was a split-second difference.

Would it have been slightly different if he had come here first?

Or would the people he just saved have ended up dead like the scene before his eyes?

A magic beast was convulsing.

He drove his sword into the crown of its head.

Now there was truly no one.

Se-min looked around. He rummaged through the backpacks of the dead. Emergency rations, canned foods, and bottled water came out. While taking out and laying down the edible items, he suddenly saw an unfamiliar object.

It was an ocarina.

Se-min chuckled and tried playing it.

Not knowing the fingering, the sound was a mess.

When he took it away from his mouth, the city fell silent.

What occasionally drifted in was not the honking of car horns or music from speakers, but the terrible roars of magic beasts.

Se-min chewed and swallowed the bread and canned food together, then drank the bottled water. Wiping his mouth with his sleeve, he rose from his spot. He picked up the iron sword again.

Since the gates went wild, every day was a continuation of choices. Death lay everywhere, so he could not save everyone. The deaths of those he failed to save followed behind him, but having become accustomed to tragedy, there was no regret or distress.

He walked again.

After walking a bit, a group of Raiders blocked Se-min at a crossroad.

“Who are you? Please identify yourself.”

He scanned their armaments. Perhaps they had a base nearby; they were organized and their equipment was clean.

Instead of answering, Se-min threw his iron sword.

The complexions of the Raiders turned pale.

His sword flew over their heads and pierced the chest of a magic beast that was just raising its body from the ground. Until the massive body fell and kicked up dust, the Raiders remained frozen on the spot.

I am Lee Se-min.

Saying so, he stretched out his aura again. His sword returned to his palm as if a string were attached to it.

Witnessing that divine prowess, the Raiders realized he was indeed the Black Mark Raider, Lee Se-min.

“A-Are you indeed Black Mark Raider Lee Se-min?”

“I am.”

“What brings you here…”

“I am just passing through.”

Se-min answered so.

He had been wandering and hunting magic beasts until now. Going to places where powerful energy was felt, he had continued raids alone.

“May I pass through?”

“Yes, yes…”

They cleared the path.

Se-min passed them. Then, no humans were reflected in his sight anymore. There were only broken ruins. Now, that sight was more familiar.

“Wait a moment!”

They called Se-min from behind.

“The captain wants to meet you, Raider.”

“I don’t want to.”

“He says you will know him.”

Se-min stopped. The sound of someone making a radio transmission was heard. The Raider’s words continued.

“He says you will know him if he mentions Kim Gyu-jin.”

***

Se-min followed their guidance.

He had wandered many places so far. He had killed bastards who were not like humans, and had also saved people in crises.

He had also passed by several bases where Raiders gathered. However, except for the five bases guarded by Black Mark Raiders, they were all castles built on sand.

However, because people did not have the ability to travel to distant places, or due to the desires of the strong who occupied those places, they had to remain where they were.

“We are gathering civilians to move them to the CCC base where Jang Geon is.”

They guided Se-min to a large supermarket located underground. The entrance was barricaded. When they signaled via radio, the shutter went up from the inside.

A series of armed Raiders appeared. They bowed to Se-min. Se-min also gave a silent nod.

“This way.”

As he advanced into the interior of the market, people’s gazes followed him. Everyone looked exhausted. A few recognized Se-min and whispered his name.

Soon, he met Kim Gyu-jin.

His face looked tired.

“It’s been a while.”

“Brother.”

“You must have only one set left by now, are you washing and wearing it?”

He tapped Se-min’s Sukajan and asked. Se-min chuckled. Kim Gyu-jin offered him a seat.

His room was originally the staff room used by the market employees, equipped with communication devices.

“Are you in contact with the Raider Bureau?”

“Rather than contact, they notify me occasionally.”

After the communication network was paralyzed, they contacted each other in old-fashioned ways. The transmission records he exchanged were recorded by hand on the table.

“It doesn’t seem like you are affiliated anywhere.”

“I am wandering around and killing magic beasts.”

“You have become a wandering warrior.”

Kim Gyu-jin laughed softly.

Strangely, Kim Gyu-jin, who used to be taciturn, now cracked jokes instead, and Se-min spoke less. As the world turned upside down, their positions also seemed to have reversed. Kim Gyu-jin handed over a chocolate that was on the table.

“Would you like some?”

Se-min took it and unwrapped it.

“Yes.”

“You’ve become quiet.”

“It’s not a pleasant world, after all.”

Se-min put the chocolate in his mouth. Watching that, Kim Gyu-jin smiled. Kim Gyu-jin scanned Se-min carefully with his blanched white pupils.

“Do you feel a sense of responsibility?”

“Pardon?”

“Since you are strong, does your heart feel heavy from a sense of responsibility for the world?”

Se-min stared at him.

Kim Gyu-jin also unwrapped a chocolate and popped it in his mouth.

“It looks good.”

“You seem to have become brighter, Brother.”

“Because that is the role I must play.”

He gestured toward the outside with his chin.

People wrapped in blankets were gathered with anxious faces. A young child began to cry. A Raider sitting nearby approached the child and quieted the crying.

“Should even I have a stiff face?”

Because it is needed, I do so.

Se-min witnessed Kim Gyu-jin and felt respect anew.

When in the military, he had been a taciturn superior; on the front line, he had run wild like a demon; and in the ruined city, he was now performing the role of a leader whom people could rely on.

He was a person who did not run away, no matter what heavy burden was given.

“I always learn from you, Brother. I will correct myself.”

“I am not telling you to force a smile. Because the role given to you will be different from mine.”

“What could the role given to me be?”

“You must know.”

Kim Gyu-jin pointed at Se-min’s iron sword, which still had bloodstains.

“You remained a Raider.”

Se-min followed his gaze and looked at his iron sword. Although used in place of Lupus, the number of magic beasts cut down with this blade would be greater than what he had done with Lupus. He went around slaughtering magic beasts without rest.

“A Raider must raid, after all.”

Kim Gyu-jin rose from his seat.

“It will be mealtime soon. Won’t you rest here today before leaving?”

Although Se-min wandered without staying anywhere, he thought it would be fine to remain here today.

Se-min nodded.

“I will trouble you for just one day.”

Se-min came out to where the people were with Kim Gyu-jin.

Raiders were lighting burners using butane gas abundant in the market. They soon created a fairly decent gukbap. Judging by the faint taste of ramen soup, it seemed they had used the magic powder.

When Se-min emptied his bowl and raised his head, a kid was suddenly staring blankly at him.

“Mister.”

“What is it?”

“Are you indeed Lee Se-min?”

“I am.”

The boy’s face brightened.

“When are you going to kill all the monsters?”

“When…”

Magic beasts were appearing continuously. Although he had killed and eliminated magic beasts indiscriminately, more magic beasts poured out through the gates than that.

Se-min chuckled.

“I don’t know.”

“I want to go to school quickly. Play games too.”

A woman who looked like the child’s mother called the child. The child answered loudly and went back. She bowed her head silently to apologize to Se-min.

Se-min also bowed his head in return.

The civilians protected by Kim Gyu-jin were diverse in age and gender. Women were gathered, and a young man was crouching alone, muttering something; Se-min could hear even that small sound.

“To think the world really ended… damn it… I cursed it to end every day… it really ended… it’s good that I don’t have to get a job… no, it’s not good… I’m hungry… what do I do for a living now… I don’t want to die…”

He was gibbering as if slightly out of his mind.

He understood that heart.

When cooped up in his room, Se-min had also lived with the words ‘I wish the world would end’ on his lips.

Once it actually ends, it’s not very good.

Soon, Kim Gyu-jin stood in front of the people. As he appeared, the atmosphere changed. Both civilians and Raiders seemed to gain hope through him.

“Tomorrow morning, we will depart for the CCC base as soon as the sun rises. It will be safe there, so don’t worry and sleep early. Got it?”

Listening to that voice, a vague belief that they might live somehow arose.

“Yes.”

“We understand.”

The people answered.

There were not many cases where they opened their mouths like this.

Kim Gyu-jin nodded.

“I will wake you when it’s time.”

At that moment, the sound of the shutter opening was heard. The eyes of the people turned to the entrance.

Along with frantic footsteps, a group of Raiders entered.

They were carrying a wounded person, who had lost consciousness and kept bleeding.

Se-min found a first aid kit from the spot he had observed earlier and ran to the wounded person.

“Are you okay?”

He attached the kit to the man’s body and infused aura.

The efficacy of first aid kits made with magic crystal technology varies according to the practitioner’s capacity. And Se-min was a Raider so skilled in aura that he could be called domestic top-tier. His Tai Chi Wisdom flowed into the man’s body.

The man’s condition stabilized rapidly.

“What happened?”

Kim Gyu-jin stood behind Se-min and watched the situation.

“There was a clash.”

“With magic beasts?”

“Well…”

They delayed their answer.

Se-min spoke without taking his hand off the man’s wound.

“It’s a wound cut by a knife.”

Kim Gyu-jin’s face stiffened.

“Have the outlaws come here?”

Those with aura capability who gave up protecting people and roamed the city after forming their own organizations were called outlaws.

They committed plundering and rape using their power. They revealed ugly desires as if waiting for the world to fall into chaos. To civilians who had not joined a proper base, outlaws were as terrifying as magic beasts.

“The possibility of this place being discovered too…”

At that moment, someone knocked on the shutter from the outside.

The unidentified visitor kicked the shutter again, and a harsh metallic sound echoed.

The sound of several people chuckling drifted in.

“Open the door! I know you’re all here! Open the door if you want to live!”

It was a clear threat.

Se-min and Kim Gyu-jin stared at each other.

“I’ll go.”

Se-min stepped forward.

“There are many of them…”

When someone muttered, the colleagues standing nearby shook their heads.

“Worry about the outlaws instead.”

“Who is he?”

“Don’t you know if you look at his jacket?”

Se-min leaving their whispering behind, Se-min went to the entrance and pressed the button.

The shutter rose.

Several men holding weapons appeared. Among them was a punk holding a handgun.

They smirked toward Se-min.

“Shouldn’t you have done this sooner?”

They strolled past Se-min.

“You settled in a good place. There must be plenty of food too.”

“What about women?”

“I just mentioned women though?”

“Yeah, there must be plenty! Heeheehee.”

Se-min scanned their attire. They didn’t have much luggage. Having formed a group like this yet having empty hands meant they had established a hideout nearby.

“Hey.”

Their steps stopped.

The man who was swaggering at the front turned back to Se-min with a harsh expression.

“Did you just say ‘hey’?”

Even though they must have been Raiders at one time, their behavior was worse than that of neighborhood thugs. As if trying to threaten Se-min, he kept distorting his face and shaking his sword hilt.

Se-min grabbed him by the collar and threw him outside.

The outlaw’s body flew through the air.

Before the rest could even raise their weapons, Se-min flung them down one by one. There was one who managed to thrust a knife at him, but Se-min knocked him down with a punch and kicked him outside.

A punk staggered up and aimed a gun.

“I-I-I’ll shoot.”

Modern firearms did not work against magic beasts.

However, it was different against fellow Raiders.

Even a Raider takes an impact if shot.

Of course, that was if they were hit.

Se-min’s iron sword shook.

Then the handgun was split in half. At the same time, even the loaded bullets were cut, and the gunpowder ignited, causing an explosion. The man screamed and fell backward. Se-min grabbed his hair and threw him.

“I-I am a Gold Mark Raider!”

The outlaw who had threatened Se-min first got up and shouted at him.

Se-min walked toward him.

“Don’t call yourself a Raider.”

“You are…”

Only then did the man recognize Se-min.

The Sukajan with a golden dragon embroidered on it.

Those cocky eyes he had seen on television once before.

“No way…”

No one could stand any longer under the aura radiating from Se-min. A massive pressure weighed down on their shoulders. The outlaws knelt and bowed one by one.

Se-min placed his foot on the head of the outlaw who claimed to be a Gold Mark and pressed down firmly.

“Be glad it was me.”

Kim Gyu-jin is a man without mercy for enemies.

If it hadn’t been for Se-min, they would have all had their life force drained by Kim Gyu-jin’s white pupils and had their heads cut off by his blade.

Se-min spoke to Kim Gyu-jin, who had come outside.

“It doesn’t seem like they are the only ones.”

At Se-min’s words, they flinched.

“They formed a group but have no luggage. Haven’t they settled down somewhere?”

“True.”

Kim Gyu-jin approached one of the squatting outlaws and leaned down.

He looked into the outlaw’s eyes.

“How many of you are there in total?”

“Well…”

Because Se-min was standing behind Kim Gyu-jin, he could not know what that outlaw was seeing, and why on earth his face was so terrified.

Confronted with Kim Gyu-jin’s white pupils, the man trembled and spilled the answer.

“O-Over there, a bit to the west, underground…”

“Who is the leader?”

“He is a Platinum Mark… there…”

He answered smoothly.

As Kim Gyu-jin fell into thought, Se-min stepped forward.

“Brother, I will go.”

“Hmm…”

Kim Gyu-jin had to protect this place, and guide the people to the CCC base at dawn. It was difficult for him to step out right now.

“It won’t take long.”

“Then, I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yes.”

Se-min grabbed the collar of the outlaw he had been stepping on and raised him.

“Lead the way.”

The rest were bound and dragged away by the Raiders following Kim Gyu-jin.

The sun was almost fully set.

Se-min walked behind, letting the Gold Mark Raider lead. The man looked like he wanted to check behind him, but every time he made a stray movement, Se-min struck the crown of his head with the flat of his blade.

The fellow, rubbing his head, secretly spoke to Se-min.

“Well… Raider… what are you going to do now?”

“Catch and beat the crap out of all of you.”

“No, not that… since the world is ended anyway… why don’t you join us…”

This time, Se-min kicked his lower back from behind. The man rolled over. Se-min grabbed his collar, lifted him, and flung him forward again. He rolled a few times on the ground.

“Ugh…”

“Stop talking nonsense and lead me to your group.”

Se-min’s aura erased his presence. Not far away, magic beasts passed by. Se-min recorded the locations where the magic beasts nested in his head and urged the man walking ahead.

“Faster.”

“Yes!”

His steps quickened.

On the street free of magic beasts, the man soon pointed to the basement of an abandoned building.

“They are gathered down there.”

“The numbers?”

“Three Raiders like me…”

“I’ll kill you if you say ‘Raider’.”

“Yes, yes. Three outlaws and five civilians…”

“Civilians?”

He hesitated and could not answer.

“I-I’ll explain once we go.”

He led the way toward the building.

The speed of the man, who was walking slowly, gradually quickened. The man ran forward, waving his hand above his head.

Then suddenly, gunshots burst out.

However, Se-min was already shrouded in aura.

The bullets could not harm him and all bounced off. After identifying the location where the shots were fired, Se-min soared immediately.

As he kicked off the air and rushed in with the subtle principle of Cloud-Ascending Steps, shock spread on the faces of the men who had been hiding and firing guns.

Patrolling the windows and rooftops, Se-min caught the assailants and threw them to the ground.

“Argh!”

“Ugh!”

“Ack!”

Se-min retrieved the handguns from them.

“Come here.”

The man who had guided Se-min returned with a resigned face.

“W-Well, that is, for me to survive too… it’s a promise among ourselves… if I stood still, I would have been shot…”

Se-min cut him off.

“Guide me inside.”

“Y-Yes, understood.”

Before following him, Se-min warned the outlaws lying on the ground.

“If you run, I will track you down and kill you.”

Having seen his skill, the outlaws merely nodded.

Se-min followed the man down to the building’s basement. Perhaps it was originally a warehouse, as boxes were piled. A musty smell drifted.

When he opened the iron door at the end of the stairs, an unexpected sight was revealed.

“Don’t come any further!”

The interior was dark.

A man held a woman hostage, pressing a knife to her neck. As if to threaten Se-min, the man moved the blade. The woman’s neck was cut, and blood flowed down.

“Move and this woman dies.”

Se-min scanned the interior.

Women in handcuffs were crouching and trembling. They stared at Se-min with eyes mixing anxiety and hope.

In another corner, various weapons, guns, and food were piled. Perhaps they had looted a police station, as magic crystal restraints that bind Raiders were also visible.

Se-min turned his eyes to the man again.

It was a familiar face.

“I know you.”

At Se-min’s words, his eyes widened.

“Since they said a Platinum Mark, I wondered, but it is a pity to meet you again like this.”

Through the dim vision, the outlaw perceived Se-min’s Sukajan.

“By any chance, you…”

“I won’t call you ‘Brother’ anymore.”

Se-min’s low voice echoed inside.

“Gu Jin-mo. Put down the knife if you don’t want to die.”

It was Manager Gu Jin-mo of CCC, who had raided Kesia together with him in the past.

In the past, it was a good relationship. He highly evaluated Se-min, trying to recruit him to CCC, and called him whenever there was a company dinner. Although they were not very close, Se-min secretly thought of him as a comfortable elder brother.

But the world had changed.

“Se-min, you…”

Gu Jin-mo gritted his teeth.

“Yeah, Lee Se-min. It’s a pity it turned out this way. Choose whether to pretend not to see and leave, or watch the women die.”

“Have you never raided with Brother Jang Geon?”

“What…”

The energy of the Tai Chi Wisdom wavered on Se-min’s body. Its power filled the narrow room completely. Even a speck of dust floating in the air was under Se-min’s influence.

Gu Jin-mo felt something like a person’s hand touching his hand holding the knife.

Gu Jin-mo felt fear.

When he last raided with Se-min, the two were equal Platinum Mark Raiders. The elapsed time was only a few months. He had heard that Se-min had risen to the Black Mark, but this was a power that surpassed his expectations.

“I am a Black Mark.”

Simultaneously with Se-min speaking, the Tai Chi Wisdom enclosing Gu Jin-mo’s grasp began to pull his hand away from the knife hilt.

Gu Jin-mo also rouse his aura, but Se-min’s aura ignored his resistance and slowly lifted his fingers from the tips. Soon, Gu Jin-mo dropped the knife. Not stopping there, the Tai Chi Wisdom bent Gu Jin-mo’s joints in the reverse direction.

“Argh!”

His five fingers bent backward. Gu Jin-mo clutched his hand and collapsed on the floor.

The woman who had been held hostage ran to the other women.

Se-min approached and stepped on Gu Jin-mo’s other hand too.

The sound of breaking bones was heard.

His screams grew even louder.

“Noisy.”

Se-min looked around the interior.

The women were still terrified, and the outlaw who had guided Se-min had a dumbfounded face. Se-min ground his foot down once more on Gu Jin-mo’s hand, which was still stepped on.

“Arghhhhh…!”

Se-min gestured to the outlaw with his chin.

“Bring the punks outside and pack the food and guns.”

***

Dawn arrived.

“Is everyone ready?”

When Kim Gyu-jin asked, the civilians nodded. Raiders surrounded them, forming a protective formation.

The outlaws dragged in by Se-min were bound outside the formation, tied in a single line. Everyone was a mess. At the testimonies of the women that they had been violated, the Raiders under Kim Gyu-jin shut the outlaws in the warehouse and beat them all night.

Kim Gyu-jin said he would hand over even the outlaws to CCC.

Se-min decided to accompany them there.

“Then, we depart.”

Taking advantage of the dawn, they marched through the ruined city.

With Se-min, a Black Mark Raider, and Kim Gyu-jin, who had comparable skill, together, the movement was smooth.

Their aura erased the party’s presence. Occasionally encountered magic beasts were slain by Se-min.

Anxiety began to disappear from the faces of the civilians.

The CCC base was located at the Sabang University campus in Dongjak-gu. They walked a full day to reach their destination.

A Raider patrolling around the campus recognized Kim Gyu-jin and greeted him.

“Captain Kim Gyu-jin! Thank you for your hard work. Are these the civilians you rescued?”

“These are civilians, and those are…”

Kim Gyu-jin pointed at the outlaws.

“Garbage.”

“Ah.”

He wore an expression of understanding.

“Please come in first. Jang Geon is talking with someone from the Raider Bureau right now. And…”

The Raider looked at Se-min. He had noticed Se-min’s presence since welcoming Kim Gyu-jin.

“Are you indeed Raider Lee Se-min?”

“Yes.”

“Indeed you are! Welcome. We are glad you came.”

They entered the Sabang University campus.

CCC’s base was systematic. Raiders trained in the central field, and civilians carrying packs walked back and forth endlessly, transporting food.

Civilians and outlaws were divided and moved to different buildings, respectively.

Se-min was guided into the large building located in the center along with Kim Gyu-jin’s party.

“Jang Geon is still talking. Over there are the people from the Raider Bureau. Would you like to greet them?”

Within the group that came from the Raider Bureau, Se-min discovered a familiar face.

“Brother.”

Hyeon Jae-yeong was standing.