Chapter 106
“Alright. Shall we have a little chat?”
“…”
The assailant sat bound, his mouth tightly shut.
His eyes were wide open, so he wasn’t unconscious—yet he showed no intention of speaking.
“No amount of threats will make me open my mouth.”
“That’s disappointing to hear when we haven’t even started.”
The interrogation hadn’t even begun, yet he was already on the defensive.
Juhyeok had expected this much, so he picked up the dagger that had fallen to the floor.
He hadn’t taken it out to threaten the man.
If this guy had been an elite sent personally to kidnap Juhyeok’s mother, then he’d definitely been trained to endure torture.
Thunk—!
“Gaaah!”
This wasn’t torture.
It was just venting anger.
He wasn’t doing this to extract information—this was pure release.
After all, this was the bastard who’d tried to go after his mother. Stabbing him in the thigh once seemed more than reasonable.
“You’re fearless. I wondered about it, but you came after her in less than a week.”
In truth, it hadn’t even been a week.
The kidnappers had shown up just one day after Jia was assigned as protection.
They’d probably planned to take his mother and use her as leverage to stop him from closing gates.
But he’d already anticipated a move like that.
“So how do I stop trash like you from ever trying this again?”
Squch—!
“Guhhk!”
Juhyeok twisted the dagger deeper into the wound.
Despite the man’s agonized groans, Juhyeok’s rage refused to cool.
“I should make an example. Leave a corpse so grotesque that no one ever even thinks about trying again.”
How could he make it look as cruel as possible?
How could he shatter their will so completely that they’d never dare challenge him again?
Juhyeok took his time, measuring the man’s face and body with his hands, thinking it over.
Then the man’s bloodshot eyes locked onto Juhyeok.
“You filthy humans… according to His will, you’ll all go extinct someday.”
“Extinct?”
“Yes. Extinct.”
Letting his sweat- and blood-soaked bangs hang limply, the man continued.
“We’ll wipe out every disgusting human being, and the world will be reborn.”
“If that happens, your family would die too.”
“There are no exceptions. I took care of them myself.”
He spoke of murdering his own family without the slightest hesitation.
A faint madness gleamed in his eyes.
“The world has been defiled beyond repair. It’s time to return Earth to a world without humans.”
“…”
Maybe he had his reasons.
Twisted, complicated reasons that might even make someone nod along if they heard the full story.
Just like Seong Jia and Hyunho Candy, everyone carried their own circumstances.
Unless he was a true psychopath, even the man who targeted his mother must have had some “justifiable” reason that warped how he saw the world.
If he’d grown up in a normal family, in a proper environment, maybe he wouldn’t be doing this now.
But it’s too late to turn back.
Whatever kind of life he’d lived no longer mattered.
What mattered was that he wanted the world to end—and that he’d targeted Juhyeok’s mother to make that happen.
No matter how tragic or complicated his fate had been, Juhyeok had no intention of showing mercy.
“You don’t look like you plan on talking anyway. Let’s just end this quickly.”
“You won’t get your way.”
The man clenched his teeth hard.
The grinding sound echoed through the room.
Blood tears began streaming from his reddened eyes.
Blood also started pouring out of the holes left by the dagger.
“This is my final gift to the world.”
Juhyeok knew exactly what was happening.
It was his first time seeing it in person, but there was no need to panic.
“Khk—!”
The man vomited blood.
Heat surged through his body as it began to swell.
Self-destruction.
Every symptom matched.
Without a second of hesitation, Juhyeok drew his sword and carved into the area near the man’s heart.
He tore through flesh and bone, ripping the heart free.
The organ looked ready to explode at any moment.
Juhyeok squeezed it hard, draining every last drop of blood inside.
Hiss—
The heart sagged like a deflated balloon.
Once the blood—the catalyst for the explosion—was gone, it became nothing more than a useless lump of organs.
“That was close.”
He hadn’t expected such ironclad resolve—enough to trigger self-destruction.
Thank goodness he remembered what he’d learned at the academy. Otherwise, he might’ve died without even realizing what happened.
“Ha…”
He tossed the heart aside and looked at the corpse.
It was mutilated enough to make anyone gag.
Should he post it on social media for everyone to see?
If I do that, Mom might see it and be traumatized.
She’d probably worry while also questioning her son’s mental state.
Not the best idea.
Was there a more refined way to threaten them?
“If there was, I’d have used it already.”
Even asking Hyunho Candy had only earned him the same answer.
So was his only option to keep eliminating them whenever they showed up, traveling the world and closing gates?
That’s way too inefficient.
There had to be a way to expose the organization.
Some method to force them to come out on their own.
He thought for a long time.
…But they probably won’t come out willingly.
If they were going to, they’d have shown themselves when Korea was first targeted.
Even if all the world’s gates were closed, the organization would stay hidden.
They don’t intend to appear…
Then the only solution was to find them.
But how?
If he were someone with influence in the underworld, he could gather information that way—but he had no ties at all.
Would talking to the yakuza or the mafia get me anything?
As Juhyeok pondered, a brilliant idea suddenly flashed through his mind.
“I don’t need to go looking for them.”
A way to use the mafia and yakuza without ever getting involved with them.
And it was incredibly simple.
How did I not think of this sooner?
Chuckling to himself, Juhyeok opened SNS.
He started typing.
Twenty minutes later, he finished and posted it.
*
“What the hell is this?!”
“I—I know, right?”
Every criminal organization in the world went into a state of maximum emergency.
The reason was a post uploaded an hour earlier by Korea’s S-rank hunter, Jeong Juhyeok.
In it, he declared that he was moving to put an end to the gate increase phenomenon.
He revealed that an organization responsible for the phenomenon had targeted his family, but that he had dealt with them all.
And since nothing was progressing, he said he’d decided to post publicly.
His method was simple.
[If the culprit behind the gate increase phenomenon does not reveal themselves within 48 hours of this post, I will begin by treating every criminal organization in Korea—and then worldwide—as responsible, and I will exterminate them all.]
A declaration of war against every criminal organization on Earth.
If the true culprit didn’t come forward within 48 hours, he would systematically destroy every criminal group he could find.
“Isn’t this guy completely insane?”
That was everyone’s reaction.
To find the culprit, he planned to wipe out all crime-related organizations.
Even for an S-rank hunter, it was recklessly extreme.
Sure, his anger was understandable—his parents had been targeted—but declaring war on all criminal organizations worldwide was madness.
“Can’t we just ignore him?”
After all, it was just one S-rank acting out.
Ignoring him should be enough to stop things at some level.
The boss had thought the same—but…
“He’s not alone.”
“…What?”
“He formed a guild recently. There’s another S-rank in it.”
If Jeong Juhyeok were acting alone, he could be restrained.
But he wasn’t.
There was another S-rank hunter in his guild.
“A Chinese hunter named Tianshi. You’ve heard of him.”
“…The youngest S-rank in history?”
Tianshi—the youngest S-rank, famous worldwide.
And he’d joined Juhyeok’s guild.
Though still a teenager, his strength was unquestionable.
Why would someone like him travel all the way to Korea to work under Jeong Juhyeok?
Tianshi had answered simply:
[I was captivated by a strength and gentleness on an entirely different level.]
Even among S-ranks, Tianshi was considered exceptional—and he’d described Juhyeok’s power as on a different level.
Rumor had it that Juhyeok cleared two A-rank gates and two S-rank gates in just two weeks.
A pace that would’ve killed an ordinary hunter—yet he casually toured afterward before returning to Korea and immediately clearing more gates.
“If we leave him alone, we really don’t know what’ll happen.”
Calls had already come in from the yakuza and triads.
Because of their proximity to Korea, they’d be the first to be eradicated if the 48 hours passed.
They contacted every connected criminal organization, demanding cooperation in finding the true culprit.
If anyone refused, they’d hand those groups over to Jeong Juhyeok themselves.
In other words: watch from afar, and we’ll drag you down with us.
“Tch… which bastard started all this….”
The boss crushed his cigar angrily.
He gave his subordinate a clear order.
“From now on, track down every single bastard connected to the gate increase phenomenon. No exceptions. Don’t sleep until you find them. Got it?”
“Yes, sir!”
Jeong Juhyeok’s SNS post spread across the entire criminal underworld, producing overwhelming results.
Every organization began scrambling to gather any and all gate-related information.
And little by little, the noose began tightening around the necks of those hiding in the darkness.
