Rage Disorder vs Rage Disorder (1)

The previously calm atmosphere had completely vanished.

Even the once tranquil temple, where only the sound of the wooden gong echoed, was gone.

Now, she was simply in the middle of a pitch-dark forest, and the presence of an abandoned building nearby, which seemed haunted, only amplified the chill.

Her hands and feet were tightly restrained, and her mind was still hazy, as if someone had forced her to swallow a sedative.

She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious—it was now night, with the sun gone and the moon high in the sky.

She wanted to check the time, but there was no way to do so.

Suddenly overcome with terror, Kwon Sang-ah struggled desperately.

“It’s no use. Unless you’re at least a B-rank hunter, you’ll never be able to break those ropes.”

Michael approached with a swagger, speaking as he walked.

If his words were true, it meant that there was no way ‘present’ Kwon Sang-ah, who was just a middle school student, could break free with her own strength.

“Hello?”

Michael crouched down, looking down at Kwon Sang-ah.

He greeted her brightly while holding a grotesquely designed greatsword, an image that was deeply unsettling.

“M-Michael… Is that really you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“Why are you doing this? Where are Chohyang-sunbae and Sumin-sunbae?”

When Kwon Sang-ah asked in a trembling voice, Michael curved his lips into a thin smile.

Then, he burst out laughing maniacally.

“Hoo-hahahahaha!! Junior. Do you know how your sunbae here feels right now?”

“What?”

“I feel like I could fly! Uh… How should I explain this…?”

Michael scratched his head, thinking hard for an answer.

Explaining emotions was still unfamiliar at his age, so he took nearly three minutes to mull it over.

“Right! How do you think a person feels when they’re angry?”

“Wha… Angry?”

“You get angry sometimes too, right? Don’t you?”

That was not exactly a wrong statement.

In fact, Kwon Sang-ah harbored resentment in her heart due to the unfair treatment she suffered at the mansion.

She had forced herself to suppress it, which was why she appeared to be such an innocent girl now.

“Can you hold back that anger?”

“Of course I have to. Especially in society…”

“Society…? Yeah, I figured you’d say something like that. These days, with social media, your name and face can spread in an instant, right?”

If you can’t control your anger in public, you’re quickly labeled as someone with anger management disorder.

Even an unhinged Michael was aware of that much.

Yet, there was something ominous in his eyes, as if mocking that idea.

His elongated horns were beginning to glow red.

“But, let me ask. Can you really hold it in? All that anger you keep bottling up inside?”

“That…”

“Yesterday, I cut off someone’s head.”

“W-What are you saying?”

Kwon Sang-ah’s lips trembled at his shocking statement.

But Michael nonchalantly continued, ignoring the horror behind his words.

“Do you know what happened afterwards?”

Gulp—

“It’s like… something inside me just burst open—POP! You know, like when a clogged, filthy toilet bowl finally goes shwaaah—! and everything is flushed away?”

“…”

“And then something amazing happened. My trait evolved! Hahahahahaha!”

Michael laughed, pointing at the greatsword in his hand.

He had forged that hideous blade with the power gained from the sudden evolution of his trait after decapitating someone.

The saw-like, shark-toothed edge looked as if Michael’s ferocity had been projected into it.

“You really don’t have to be so scared. As long as you keep this little secret, I have no intention of harming you.”

“And how am I supposed to believe that?”

Kwon Sang-ah glanced at the group clustered behind Michael.

Judging by the expensive gear they all wore, they seemed like hunters.

Hunters whose specialty was dirty work.

“Oh, those people? If you noticed, they’re the same nice folks who were participating in the Buddhist ceremony earlier.”

“Then that ceremony…”

“Hahahaha… Actually, we planned all this ourselves. Cool, isn’t it?”

She remembered what Chohyang-sunbae had said when they first entered the temple: attendance seemed lower than usual today.

Thinking about it now, it was meticulous from the start—having all those in attendance actually be these murderous hunters.

To pull that off, they would need control over the temple from the beginning.

Just how much effort had they put into orchestrating this?

“But… I didn’t hear anything suspicious during the ceremony.”

“Right. Your hearing’s really good, isn’t it? That’s why we all used telepathy to communicate.”

“How did you…?”

“How did I know? It’s all thanks to these people.”

Michael pointed to the ‘Murderer Hunters’ standing behind him.

They seemed to be connected to this situation. In truth, they had a lot of information about Kwon Sang-ah.

“Do you know who these people are? They’re from the Hwasan Guild—your father’s guild.”

“Wh-what…?”

“My girlfriend Emily’s family has connections to various guilds. That includes Hwasan, too, so they just lent me these people.”

She’d always known her father’s background was shady.

It was easy to guess that he played at being an ordinary hunter in public, but did dirty deeds from the shadows.

Yet, she was shocked that those hunters had targeted her.

“Hahaha…! Like I said, you don’t have to worry. No matter how dirty these people are, they can’t just kill the guildmaster’s daughter.”

“…”

“From what I’ve heard, they called you a ‘puppet’ or something… what does that mean?”

A puppet… She’d suspected as much.

There was a reason her father and older brother always kept her at arm’s length.

All those uneasy suspicions she’d harbored seemed to be true—and it made her blood boil.

“I knew it…”

“Hm? What did you say?”

That’s right, to them she was less than a doll.

But she couldn’t bear to see others suffer because of her.

“What about Chohyang-sunbae and Sumin-sunbae…?”

“Oh, those two?”

Michael, who’d been squatting, suddenly stood and stretched.

He breathed in the fresh air before continuing.

“Hmm… You remember that drug incident before? Ma Seongjin was supposed to take the fall, but I did instead, and I was really pissed. Someone must’ve snitched.”

“….!”

Kwon Sang-ah’s eyes widened in shock.

It was she herself who’d overheard Michael’s plans while training late at night and told Ma Seongjin.

But Michael went on, oblivious.

“But it wasn’t hard to figure out who it was. It was Sung Chohyang.”

“What…?”

“That bitch once told me herself that she’d report me if I ever caused trouble.”

He was way off the mark.

The one who snitched was not Sung Chohyang but Kwon Sang-ah herself.

In the end, Chohyang alone had become the scapegoat.

“What did you do to Chohyang-sunbae?”

“Don’t worry. She’s still breathing.”

“What does that mean…”

“Truth is, there’s something urgent I have to do right now.”

Michael glanced at a system window only he could see.

──────────────────

[A mission has been issued. (Rare)]

– Sever the life of the person you resent most.

Reward: Massive Karma increase

──────────────────

“I thought long and hard about who I resent most. But no matter how much I considered, it wasn’t Chohyang. It’s Ma Seongjin—the one who completely humiliated me.”

“Seongjin…?!”

To complete the mission, he’d made Ma Seongjin his target.

Thus, he needed someone with contact with Seongjin—like Sung Chohyang, Choi Sumin, or Kwon Sang-ah.

“Those two woke up from the sedative faster than you. I begged them to call that bastard Ma Seongjin for me… but they didn’t listen at all. As if they’d trained professionally in making people furious.”

It was hardly a ‘request’—he planned to lure Seongjin and kill him.

Chohyang and Sumin had realized his intent and kept silent.

He tried to force their phones from them to call Seongjin, but both smashed their own phones.

From Michael’s perpetually agitated point of view, it was infuriating.

“So… where are they now?”

“Hahahahaha…!”

Michael let out a hollow laugh and signaled the hunters.

Understanding the gesture, they disappeared into the abandoned building.

What they dragged out was the very people everyone had been searching for—Sung Chohyang and Choi Sumin.

But…

“Haha! Blame those bastards for making me mad, right?”

As punishment for not cooperating, their condition was wretched.

Choi Sumin had a face full of bruises. Blood ran down his head and he was coughing up blood, showing clear signs of brutal beating.

And as for Sung Chohyang…

“I never liked that bitch’s wings. Every time they fluttered, little bits would fly everywhere.”

It went beyond just a beating—one of the fairy’s wings was torn.

Seeing the blood pouring from where the wing had been, Kwon Sang-ah felt her strength drain away.

“Sang-ah… you’re okay…”

Luckily, both were still conscious.

Sung Chohyang, barely clinging to life, called for Kwon Sang-ah.

Even with her wing destroyed, she was worrying about her first.

Seeing her like that, something within Kwon Sang-ah finally snapped.

“Fine. Guess I’ll have to borrow your phone, then.”

Michael reached for Kwon Sang-ah’s pocket.

At that moment, blood spurted from his hand.

“Aaargh!!”

Kwon Sang-ah had suddenly bared her teeth, biting his hand hard.

As she tore into him like a wild beast with fresh meat, the taste of blood filled her mouth.

But she had no choice but to let go when Michael reflexively swung his greatsword at her.

“You… little bitch!!”

Michael simultaneously felt pain and fury at his broken hand.

But his rage was nothing compared to the madness overtaking the girl.

“I even addressed you with some respect as ‘sunbae’… Guess I can’t do that anymore.”

“What are you babbling about!”

The hunters’ eyes widened at Kwon Sang-ah’s sudden action.

But this was only the beginning.

Cracks began to form in the restraints binding Kwon Sang-ah’s hands and feet.

Crack—!

Kwon Sang-ah finally shattered her restraints with sheer force and stood on her two feet.

Michael and the other hunters stared, mouths agape.

The magic power radiating from the enraged Kwon Sang-ah was beyond what any middle schooler could possibly muster, and the hunters immediately took defensive stances.

Boom—!

At the sudden, explosive charge from Kwon Sang-ah, an enormous shockwave scattered dust throughout the area.

A number of hunters were blown away by the tremendous impact.

Blasting away the hunters blocking her path, Kwon Sang-ah reached Sung Chohyang and Choi Sumin.

“Sang-ah…”

Sung Chohyang saw Kwon Sang-ah, who had instantly closed the distance, standing before her.

Her eyes burned like orbs of molten lava, her horns were longer than before.

Moreover, dragon wings had sprouted from her back, and thick scales wrapped around her arms.

This was the first time she’d seen Kwon Sang-ah’s rumored trait in person.

“Sunbae…”

“Are you sure you’re okay…?”

“Worry about yourself instead!”

With eyes bloodshot with rage, Kwon Sang-ah broke their restraints as well.

The power fueled by her wrath was awe-inspiring.

But Sung Chohyang could only sigh seeing her like this.

She’d brought her to the temple to teach her serenity—and now she had instead been consumed by rage.

“Hurry, you two need to escape.”

“What about you?”

“I won’t be able to hold a conversation much longer anyway.”

Normally, once her ‘berserker’ state was triggered, Kwon Sang-ah wouldn’t be able to distinguish friend from foe.

Thanks to her late-night special training, however, she was able to keep some of her reason.

“In another minute… you two will be in danger, too.”

“…”

“Please.”

With no other option, Choi Sumin lifted Sung Chohyang onto his back.

Then, he used his own trait, ‘invisibility’, to disappear.

“Be careful! There are monsters here among them stronger than B-rank!”

With those final words, the two vanished.

Seeing that, Michael ground his teeth, eager to chase after them—but Kwon Sang-ah stood in his way.

“Michael, want some information that might interest you?”

Kwon Sang-ah smiled before losing her last vestiges of reason.

“Remember who told Seongjin about your plan? That was actually me.”

“What?”

“You’ve been barking up the wrong tree, you bastard.”

With those words and a wicked smile, Kwon Sang-ah’s reasoning departed.

And when Michael heard the truth, his own sanity snapped.

“It was you?”

“… Grrrr.”

The two beasts began snarling at each other.

****

“Huff… huff…!”

How far had they run?

Choi Sumin, carrying Sung Chohyang on his back, kept up his invisibility and was running like mad.

He couldn’t afford to drop his trait, afraid of being pursued.

“Where the hell even are we?!”

Choi Sumin continued running through the unknown mountains.

It was hard to navigate the pitch-black woods, without even the feeble glow of a cellphone for light.

He’d been running for thirty minutes already, but no path appeared.

Calling 112 for help was impossible.

“Should have just left my phone alone!”

Both of them had their phones briefly confiscated by Michael in the abandoned building.

When they realized his goal was to kill Ma Seongjin, neither of them could just watch.

As soon as they heard Seongjin’s “Hello?” on the seized phone, Sung Chohyang snatched it away with his teeth.

But Michael, furious, slashed off Sung Chohyang’s wing with his greatsword.

Even as he screamed, Sung Chohyang smashed the phone, and Sumin did the same—both taking a beating for it.

“This is crazy! Seriously!”

Frustration nearly drove him insane, but right now escaping the mountain came first.

Determined to get help, Choi Sumin kept running.

“Who’s there?”

Just then, a flashlight beam shone in their direction.

Worried that the pursuers had already caught up, Choi Sumin tensed.

Still, if necessary, he could use ‘invisibility’ again and slip away.

“Sumin?”

“Eeek!”

“Sumin, is that really you?”

“Huh?”

However, the voice was very familiar.

The person holding the phone-light gradually revealed himself.

“Seongjin…?”

“Yeah, it’s you, Sumin.”

Relieved, Choi Sumin dropped his invisibility, but questions bubbled up.

“Wait, why are you here?”

“Me? I came to offer a prayer at the temple tonight, but the whole place was empty.”

“You go to the temple too?”

“Yeah, I do.”

To think Ma Seongjin was also a Buddhist surprised him.

“So how did you end up deep in these mountains…”

“Oh, Chohyang called me. I heard a weird scream, then the call suddenly cut off.”

At first, he’d thought it was a prank call.

But knowing Chohyang’s character, Seongjin realized something was off.

His misgivings peaked when he arrived at the temple for the evening service.

“When I went inside, I could smell some kind of anesthetic powder. So I followed the scent and ran into you guys.”

Who knew how he could pick up such a scent, but meeting Seongjin put Sumin greatly at ease.

“What’s that you’ve got on your back?”

He saw something on Choi Sumin’s back, but it was too dark.

When he shone the flashlight for a clearer look… Seongjin was left speechless.

Slung across his back was Sung Chohyang, one wing torn off.

“Seongjin… something terrible has happened.”

Finally, choking back sobs, Choi Sumin explained everything that had happened so far.

————-= Clacky’s Corner ————-=

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep