Chapter 238

“B, Boss! This is bad!”

“What is it.”

Salvatore Morone, the Boss of the Salvatore Family, lifted his head from the documents he had been working on.

The executive who had burst through the office door looked pale.

“Th, they’re…… it’s an attack!”

“An attack? From who?”

Was it the Black Dragon Gang led by that century-old monster?

Or perhaps those Beast bastards who had quickly filled the vacancy left by the Blood Wolves and risen in power?

No, with the New Valhalla City council general election just ahead, no one would be stupid enough to openly provoke him at a time like this.

It would make more sense if it were some ignorant young punks trying to show off their bravado.

“Pe, people we’ve never seen before! There are two of them, and they’ve turned our Pachinko parlor upside down!”

As expected.

Salvatore Morone felt a strange satisfaction at his prediction being correct. But only for a moment. He quickly noticed something that bothered him in his subordinate’s report.

“Two of them?”

“Y, yes…… just two people…….”

“What do they look like?”

“Th, they both looked very young. One was wearing an expensive suit and muttering to himself like he’d lost half his mind. The other was wearing a mask.”

“Never heard of them…… And you’re telling me our men were all taken down by just those two?”

“S, sorry!!”

“…….”

Salvatore furrowed his brow, but he did not scold him.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to blame his incompetent subordinates. He simply knew nothing would change by doing so.

More importantly—just two people.

If they had openly attacked the shop with such small numbers, it meant they were confident in their abilities. At the very least, they were probably Adaptees with a Replacement Rate exceeding 50%.

“I don’t know who they are, but they must have come well prepared.”

“I, it seems so.”

“What are their demands?”

“They said they want to meet you, Boss.”

“Me? In person?”

“Yes.”

“They’re quite confident.”

Salvatore Morone let out a hearty laugh as he rose from his chair. It sounded almost genial, but a thick vein bulged at his temple.

“Insolent brats who don’t know their place. I’ll have to teach them some manners.”

With that, he touched his wrist and peeled something off. What had looked like skin was actually a glove made from synthetic flesh. Beneath it, a pitch-black metallic fist emerged.

The moment he saw it, the executive swallowed.

‘It’s out. The Boss’s Red Fist……!’

Most Mafia organizations passed leadership down to their “bloodline.” Sons, relatives—at the very least, someone of the same ethnicity would be allowed to rise as executive or Boss.

But Salvatore Morone was different.

He had started as a low-ranking member and, in just twenty years, climbed to the top solely through “ability,” even changing his name along the way.

He had once been known by the nickname Red Fist…… and it was said that although his fists were black, they earned the title “Red” because, in his youth, the blood of his enemies never had time to dry upon them.

There was even a rumor that the supposedly rustproof material of his hands had once rusted.

‘It’s been a while since I’ll get to see the Boss’s skills……!’

Swish. Rustle.

Salvatore shrugged off his suit jacket and loosened his tie, tossing them carelessly over the chair. He unbuttoned the top two buttons of his tightly fastened dress shirt.

Through the pristine white fabric, the metallic sheen of his Skin Armor Module faintly showed.

These days, it was common to paint Skin Armor cyberware to resemble human skin tones. But Salvatore had nothing to do with such trends.

Pure pragmatism.

Rather than waste money on useless aesthetics, he made himself stronger. Though time had aged and weakened the ‘human’ parts of him, the mechanical parts had grown stronger and more refined.

And so the legend of the Red Fist remained alive.

Whoever came before him would be nothing more than minced meat beneath his crimson blows.

“Where was it again?”

“The Pachinko parlor, ‘Royal Ball World.’”

“Good that it’s close. Lead the way.”

“Yes, sir!”

Fearless bastards.

There would be no conversation.

I would grind their entire bodies to pulp, leaving only their brains intact. Then I would place those brains in a jar and make sure they answered who sent them and what their purpose was.

With that resolve, Salvatore Morone followed his subordinate to the shop and finally came face to face with the mysterious attackers.

-Boss……!

-The Boss came himself……!

-We’ll get to see the legend of the Red Fist in person……!

Stepping into the shop, Salvatore slowly turned his head and swept his gaze across the interior.

None of the Pachinko machines appeared particularly damaged. Aside from a few stray bullets, the interior looked mostly intact.

‘Financial losses seem minimal.’

However, the condition of his subordinates was another matter.

Most of them were unconscious, sprawled on the floor. The few who were still awake had been beaten so badly their faces were unrecognizable. One was so grotesquely swollen he looked like a pufferfish.

Those still conscious were kneeling in the now-empty shop, bowing their heads before the unidentified attackers.

The moment he saw that sight, fury flared in Salvatore’s mind.

These bastards……!

If the shop had been reduced to chaos, he wouldn’t have been this angry. If his cherished subordinates had been turned into corpses and blood had soaked the floor, he might have felt sorrow—but not rage.

But both the shop and his men were intact. It looked like they had been beaten one-sidedly, but their lives were not in danger.

And what did that mean?

They had been ‘toyed with.’

They had lost their honor while keeping their lives.

He could not tolerate that.

“I won’t let this slide……!”

It was a statement directed both at his subordinates and at the attackers. He turned his gaze forward, toward them.

Just as reported—only two.

They didn’t look particularly remarkable. No obvious cyberware or Combat Module enhancements. No sign of Wizard support either.

‘Brats……!’

Where did these worthless bastards get their hands on some halfway decent Modules or cyberware and start running wild? Annoying—but it couldn’t be helped.

At times like this, an adult had no choice but to step in personally and hammer the etiquette of the underworld deep into their bones.

Crack. Creak.

His black Power Fist twisted with a savage grind.

A heart made by modifying an armored vehicle Power Engine began pumping, sending vast energy throughout his body and rapidly raising his internal heat. Thousands of volts of electricity yanked tight at the carbon-fiber muscles of his thighs.

Swoosh.

Salvatore lowered into stance, his body coiled like a spring ready to launch at any moment. He resembled a black panther targeting the throat of a deer.

And in the next instant—

His body shot forward like a catapult. There was no warning, no bluster. It was speed worthy of the word ‘launch,’ a velocity that far surpassed the limits of any living creature.

Boom—!

A sonic boom erupted belatedly where Salvatore had been standing.

The air tore apart, and the aftershock roared through the room. The glass panels of nearby Pachinko machines shattered all at once, and a torrent of metal balls burst out from within.

‘It’s over, brat……!’

A mere twenty meters.

At Mach speed, it would take 0.06 seconds for his body to reach the enemy. Even at maximum speed, visual information required at least 0.2 seconds to travel through the optic nerve to the brain and back to the muscles as a reaction.

Even with drugs to accelerate the process, the gap between 0.06 and 0.2 seconds was insurmountable.

Salvatore’s speed was beyond even his own control. From the moment he launched himself, he had already committed to pulverizing his enemies. No matter what happened midway, there was no turning back.

The missile button had already been pressed.

He had become a single bullet, capable of nothing but achieving the sole objective: ‘kill the enemy.’

Even if they belatedly begged for forgiveness or expressed a desire for peace, it would never reach him. And even if some miracle occurred and he somehow realized it—there would be nothing he could do.

……And that was the problem.

Reaching the enemies in less time than it took to blink, Salvatore saw.

He shouldn’t have been able to. His dynamic vision should have been utterly incapable of keeping up.

And yet he saw it.

In slow motion.

Was this what people meant when they said that just before death, one’s entire life flashed before their eyes?

Just as his fist was about to punch through their bodies—

The masked man moved.

As if annoyed, he lazily swung his arm.

In the slowed world, he moved his arm unhurriedly and threw a punch. Like batting away a ball in a baseball game, his arm positioned itself precisely where Salvatore’s face would arrive.

And the result was obvious.

“Kkwek.”

Salvatore let out a short, dying gasp.

And became humanity’s first living home-run ball.

“It’s handled, Boss.”

“Uh, uh, r, right…….”

Kim Cheolsu barely suppressed the scream rising in his throat and continued his act.

‘What kind of Boss are you, you damn monster……!’

He had known that Aaron Stingray was strong. He had known that if Aaron truly wanted to, he could wipe out half this city alone.

But knowing it in his head and witnessing it with his own eyes were entirely different things.

Before his eyes, Aaron had crushed all the combatants of the Salvatore Family—and even completely pulverized Salvatore Morone himself, who had personally come to the scene.

Thanks to that, Cheolsu learned that a human being could fly that far like a baseball—and that a face could be flattened like a pancake and still cling to life.

Knowledge he really could have lived without…….

In any case, the first crisis had been overcome safely. Cheolsu let out a sigh of relief inwardly and asked Aaron through voice chat.

[But why did you target the Salvatore Family first? There are bigger organizations like the Black Dragon Gang.]

[The Salvatore Family’s power comes from its leader, Salvatore. Many of the low-ranking members specialize more in intelligence gathering and business operations than in combat.]

[So you needed informants.]

[Correct.]

[Then what now?]

[Information first.]

[Information about Evangeline. Got it.]

Currently, Evangeline had been taken by the Guardian.

Since the Guardian was in a slave-like state under the Black Dragon Gang, there was a high chance both of them were in their grasp. However, instead of immediately attacking the Black Dragon Gang, Aaron chose to strike the Salvatore Family first.

As the main villain of the ‘Guardian Episode,’ the Black Dragon Gang could be dealt with after calmly gathering information and designing the board.

And to gather that information, he targeted the Salvatore Family, whose informant network was exceptional. He intended to use Salvatore’s power to locate the two of them.

[I’ll rest for a bit. Handle the interrogation.]

[Yes.]

Ending the voice chat, Cheolsu walked toward the kneeling Salvatore, putting on the dignified act of an ‘Emperor of the Underworld.’

Salvatore, once a refined middle-aged man, now looked ridiculous with one cheek sunken in after his facial skeletal frame had been damaged.

Even so, the presence of someone who had long ruled the Underworld did not completely vanish. Salvatore met Cheolsu’s gaze without fear.

“Whad…… d’you…… wan……!”

His pronunciation was slurred due to his swollen lips, but his low voice still carried force.

Cheolsu felt like he might wet himself just from that, but Aaron Stingray stood behind him—a cheat character—and with that courage, he continued the act.

“From today onward, your Boss is me. You will work for me.”

“Dond…… be ridicurous……!”

Rather than submit beneath them, Salvatore seemed ready to bite off his own tongue. Then, as if realizing something, his eyes flashed.

“Now I geddit……!! You…… med a Dragon……!!”

A Dragon?

What did that mean?

Just as Cheolsu tilted his head inwardly, Aaron—who had said he would rest—strode forward.

“Boss, I’ll handle this here.”

“R, right…….”

As Cheolsu stepped aside, he saw it.

Behind the mask concealing his face, Aaron’s predatory eyes gleamed like those of a raptor.

Chapter 239

-You bastards, you’ve met a Dragon.

Having decided to put Kim Cheolsu forward as the Boss, it would not be wise for him to keep stepping into the spotlight and revealing his presence.

And yet, at Salvatore Morone’s words, Aaron judged that he could not simply sit back and wait.

The moment the word ‘Dragon’ reached his ears in such an unexpected place, it was impossible to brush it aside as nothing.

“Did you just say ‘Dragon’?”

“……?”

For a moment, Salvatore’s face turned pale with fear. Of course, since his face had been flattened like a pancake, there was no real way to tell what expression he was making.

However, the voice leaking out between his swollen lips was unmistakably trembling.

“Y, yes…… so what……?”

Salvatore tried to maintain his composure.

Even if he now looked ridiculous and spoke with slurred lips, his essence was that of a beast—no, a lion that had once ruled as king. Though he had been defeated in battle and suffered irreparable wounds, his pride would not allow him to tuck his tail and bow.

But before being a beast, a lion was a living creature.

Eat, sleep, breathe—protect its own life and spread its DNA. That instinct was carved deep into his genes.

And in Aaron’s gaze, there was something that stimulated that primal core. On an instinctive level, he could only conclude that defying this man was dangerous.

Perhaps because Salvatore had lived faithfully to his instincts as a dominant male beast, he was especially sensitive to such things.

……Or so he told himself.

Simply put, Salvatore was scared.

The golden glow faintly visible through the mask was more than enough to make him shrink back. No, to be honest—wouldn’t it be strange if someone saw those eyes and didn’t flinch?

If they had wanted to, they could have killed everyone here. The only reason they hadn’t was because they simply ‘didn’t feel like it.’

“Explain in detail.”

“…….”

Why should I? The words almost slipped out of habit, but he swallowed them. Behind him, countless subordinates were kneeling as well.

Right. This wasn’t just about his pride. He had to answer for the men who had trusted and followed him.

His facial skeletal frame was damaged, but his cybernetics were intact. That meant he was still fully capable of giving a rational answer.

“I’ll explain everything…….”

Unconditional surrender.

It was the only ‘rational’ option available to Salvatore.

It wasn’t because he was scared. That was how he justified it to himself.

“A Dragon is roaming around?”

“Y, yes.”

Together with Kim Cheolsu, I listened to Salvatore explain about the ‘Dragon’ in his office.

“Is it a well-known rumor?”

“Not exactly. Only organizations with a certain level of intelligence capability would know.”

According to Salvatore, rumors of a ‘Dragon’ were circulating among the Mafia. Supposedly, a ‘Dragon’ was roaming the areas below Sector D—territory dominated by the Mafia.

“They keep it quiet, but everyone’s burning the midnight oil trying to find this ‘Dragon.’”

“Why?”

“To receive the Dragon’s blessing, of course.”

“A blessing…… They can’t possibly be unaware of how dangerous Dragons are.”

“Well, that’s how rumors go. They say it’s different from the one that devastated the European Continent in the past. That this one is benevolent and grants blessings to humans of its own will.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“What kind of blessing?”

“That part isn’t clear. Everyone says something different, and Dragons aren’t exactly well-documented. But supposedly, those who’ve met this ‘Dragon’ have all gained extraordinary power.”

Humanity had conquered cancer, developed flying vehicles, and even acquired the power to send people into space through highly advanced technology.

And yet, people still longed for ‘gods’ or ‘magic.’ They wanted to believe that somewhere out there existed a mysterious power capable of transcending human limits.

It was laughable.

But the problem was that in this world, ‘magic’ was real.

“Dragon magic…….”

It wasn’t a joke. A single breath from one of them could reduce this city to ashes. Let alone whatever structured spells they might weave intentionally.

And if this were merely a rumor, that would be ideal—but the odds were high that it wasn’t.

The fact that even a major Mafia boss like Salvatore believed the rumor seriously was proof enough.

“Were there people who met this Dragon?”

“Yes.”

“Explain clearly.”

“Well…… Have you ever seen the news about fifty men being slaughtered on Ryming Street, Sector E?”

“Hmm.”

“Even if you did, you probably don’t remember. Gang and Mafia clashes happen all the time here. In a city overflowing with robbery and murder, the death of lower-class slum dwellers isn’t much different from swatting a few mosquitoes.”

Salvatore let out a dry chuckle.

As if he had just delivered some clever piece of black comedy.

But it wasn’t a joke. As I had said many times, this city was half insane.

Megacorporations manipulated the government. Anyone who obstructed profit was casually eliminated by hired killers. Human experimentation was fair game if it generated revenue. Even those who once called each other brothers would stab one another in the back if money was involved.

If I had been born an ordinary middle-class citizen, I might have started my mornings watching some TV show cheerfully asking, ‘How many people died in New Valhalla City yesterday? Just 41! Did you guess correctly?’ and making bets on the body count.

But I was Aaron Stingray, part of the city’s elite upper class. I had lived seeing only its bright side.

Sure, there had been incidents—but in this technologically advanced future city, I ran the Academy like a pleasant ranch and lived a life largely free of want.

In any case.

Several months ago, fifty grown men were found dead in Sector E. The news reported it as a Mafia war.

But that was only half true.

“Unreported was the fact that the dead were a joint force of the Black Dragon Gang, the Romain Family, and Beast. All of them were executives or top-tier combatants. All of them were Adaptees with high Replacement Rates. And I assume I don’t need to explain where they might have acquired Nanomachines.”

Likely some employee from Stingray or Militech siphoning off goods to sell secretly. That wasn’t important right now.

“Anyway, the one who killed that entire coalition was a single man. A low-ranking member of the Black Dragon Gang. It seems he tried to form his own faction with that power—but was discovered and subdued before he could.”

“…….”

“Needless to say, he hadn’t undergone Nanomachine enhancement or cyberware surgery. Nor had he been ‘juicing’ like the Beast lot—you know, those drugs that make your muscles swell unnaturally. In any case, overnight, he gained enough ‘power’ to wipe out fifty executive-level fighters.”

“And the one who gave him that power was the ‘Dragon’?”

“That’s what he claimed before he was shot dead. Of course, that information only circulated among executives.”

“And that’s when they began searching for the Dragon?”

“No. Would anyone seriously believe the ramblings of a single man? For all we knew, he was high on some unknown substance.”

True.

Which meant there must have been something more convincing.

“What happened next?”

“There were about three more similar incidents. Smaller in scale. All of them committed by individuals claiming to have received blessings from the ‘Dragon.’”

Once could be dismissed.

Four times could not.

Through repeated incidents, the Mafia began to believe in the Dragon’s existence.

They didn’t know its true intentions—but if its power could be obtained through contract or binding, then surpassing rivals and reigning as Emperor of the Underworld would not be impossible.

More than that.

A single Dragon had once devastated the entire European Continent. With that kind of power, not just the shadows—but even the Stingray Group, currently ruling the city from the light as its Emperor, could be toppled.

That belief began to spread.

The bosses laughed it off publicly as nonsense—while secretly searching for the Dragon behind the scenes.

“That’s everything.”

“Not much of value.”

“I wasn’t particularly interested in such rumors.”

Unlike other organizations, the Salvatore Family focused more on tracking the movements of rivals than directly hunting the Dragon.

Even if it existed, the cost of obtaining its power was unknown.

“Rather than making a contract with an unknown being for excessive power, it’s more efficient to manage the power balance among organizations. Even if someone else finds the Dragon, as long as we detect it quickly, we could seize it at the right time.”

“I see.”

Salvatore wasn’t a fool.

Not that I particularly cared about his reasoning.

“That’s all?”

“Yes. That’s everything.”

It didn’t feel like a lie.

‘So he thought I was someone connected to the Dragon. I have a rough grasp of what’s happening.’

In other words, the entire Underworld was engaged in a kind of treasure hunt.

And I had arrived precisely at that timing.

No—‘precisely’ wasn’t the right word.

‘I see. So this was the design.’

Evangeline runs away. The Guardian doesn’t enroll. Kallia targets me. And at the same time, rumors of a Dragon spread through the Underworld.

When events overlap to this extent, it’s no longer coincidence—it’s inevitability.

In my mind, the outline of this scenario began to take shape.

And I reached a conclusion.

“We have to capture the ‘Dragon.’”

That was the main quest of this episode.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep