Chapter 153: I Will Stand in the Heavens (3)

Director Ryu stared blankly at the capsule with hollow eyes. The back of her head throbbed as if she’d been struck hard with a hammer.

“You… tricked me…?”

“When did I ever trick you?”

The woman who approached from the side pushed up her glasses with her index finger as she spoke. She was quite the beauty in a lab coat that clung tightly to her curves.

“From the start, Lee Taebaek never trusted you.”

“And who are… you…?”

“I’m a ‘real comrade’—unlike you, his business partner.”

“……”

A spark ignited in Director Ryu’s eyes. The fuel for that spark was jealousy.

‘This situation right now.’

An intruder was brazenly roaming the group’s information hub. It was as good as a massive hole punched through Daesung Group’s security.

She couldn’t just blame Lee Taebaek for it. If anything, it was her own fault.

If only she’d included a clause mandating silence about this place. But Director Ryu had foolishly trusted him. Letting her emotions get the better of her…

‘I thought he’d never tell a soul, of course.’

The emotional balance between Lee Taebaek and Director Ryu was uneven. Just as this bespectacled bitch said, were they merely business partners after all?

Irritation pierced her brain and knocked on the crown of her skull. Feelings of betrayal and sorrow tangled her thoughts into a mess.

“Did you ever even ask how Lee Taebaek feels about you?”

Director Ryu snapped back sharply for no good reason. She, who was normally as cool-headed as they came.

“See? Always trying to get answers out of everything. That’s what a business partner is. Taebaek and us? We trust each other’s backs without needing to say a word.”

“Proof of that…?”

Director Ryu bit her lower lip along with her intended retort. Yu Dahui smirked at the corner of her mouth.

‘They came here to stand guard as Taebaek’s protectors.’

The Resistance.

Even for them, with their deep-rooted spirit of defiance, infiltrating the heart of a megacorp was no small feat.

On the contrary, they were even more cautious in the upper districts. The Resistance planted black agents within megacorps.

Everyone in the company knew it on the down-low. The problem was how damn tricky they were to root out.

‘And when they’re occasionally exposed…’

If contact with a Resistance member was discovered.

With irrefutable on-site evidence, not only the black agent but all their remnants got rounded up. Then, as megacorps always did, they were brutally ‘dealt with.’

That’s why the entire 9th Battalion marching in felt like a reckless move, one that ignored all risk calculations in the face of existential danger.

Yu Dahui spoke.

“That’s what trust is. Something you, raised in a megacorp your whole life, could never understand. Take a good look while you’re at it. Lee Taebaek seems to have some goodwill toward you, so we’re sparing you.”

“…What makes you so great…?”

Director Ryu’s clenched fist trembled. Her knuckles turned bone-white.

“Parasites leeching off capital… Hypocrites soaked in that elitist ‘resistance’ ideology, sowing chaos in the city…!”

Amid everyone’s gaze, Director Ryu spat out her raw frustration.

“Daring to invade a megacorp— *Urk*!”

Her mouth felt instantly frozen. Yu Dahui ground the revolver’s barrel against her gums as she said,

“That’s enough.”

“*U-urk*.”

“I get it—being betrayed by a guy hurts like hell. But we’re not saintly enough to indulge a grown woman’s tantrum.”

The cold metal of the revolver scraped across Director Ryu’s teeth with a rattle. Goosebumps erupted all over her.

“Elitist ideology? Hypocrisy? Don’t even start with megacorps preaching that crap. If we were soaked in elitism and hypocrisy, would we be out here killing people left and right?”

“*Hngk*.”

“That’s enough, Yu Dahui.”

Kang Hyeonseong shook his head.

Yu Dahui’s face soured for a moment before she withdrew the barrel. A trail of drool arced downward.

“Kuh, kugh…!”

Director Ryu crumpled right there. Fumito and Rock stared at her with disgust, like she was a bug.

Belatedly, Director Ryu felt like she was smack in the middle of a beast’s den. She’d unwittingly asserted her authority and nearly gotten her brains blown out.

As moisture welled in her eyes, the capsule caught her gaze. Lee Taebaek slumbered peacefully inside, like the prince in the sleeping woods.

‘Taebaek is an enemy of the megacorps.’

A few months was a short time.

In that brief span, her wariness toward Lee Taebaek had vanished. Director Ryu wasn’t some soft woman, but seeing his struggles, she’d hoped he’d find a foothold in Daesung. Apparently, she’d harbored that expectation on impulse.

“Woman.”

Kang Hyeonseong strode over and squatted in front of Director Ryu. Yu Dahui stepped back, wiping down her revolver with the hem of her lab coat.

“You’re cooperating with Taebaek, but you’re a total stranger to us.”

“…Haa… haa…?”

“So why do you think we’re letting you live?”

As he spoke, Kang Hyeonseong jerked his thumb over his shoulder. Director Ryu’s eyes flicked to the capsule, then back to the cinnamon-skinned man.

“…Did Lee Taebaek tell you not to kill me?”

“Taebaek doesn’t know much else, but he looks after his people fiercely. Honestly, I still don’t get it. Why he goes that far.”

Kang Hyeonseong let out a hollow chuckle and shook his head.

“Why he gathered stray bastards to found the Hundred-Fold Sect. Why he wiped out that insane drug, Berserk, plaguing the city when he didn’t have to. Why he always steps up in conflicts between Ten Wings that he could ignore.”

“That’s just nosiness— Aak!”

Rock’s heel slammed down on Fumito’s instep for failing to read the room. Kang Hyeonseong rubbed his forehead with a sigh.

“Anyway… what I’m saying is this. Woman, you might feel betrayed by Taebaek. And knowing him, he’d brush it off like nothing. But remember one thing. If danger comes your way, Lee Taebaek will step in—even if he pretends it’s not his business.”

“…Why would he…?”

“I want to know too.”

Kang Hyeonseong shrugged and rose, using his knee for leverage.

“That’s definitely why he gained that much power in such a short time. Acting cold and detached, but always charging headfirst into trouble.”

“How can you be so… sure?”

Director Ryu asked with wide-eyed astonishment.

Kang Hyeonseong placed his hands on his hips and nodded toward the group with his chin. His eyes swept over the entire 9th Battalion and a few absent members.

“Everyone here owes Taebaek a debt.”

Including Director Ryu herself.

Lee Taebaek had turned the Haragusa Festival into a bloodbath. Thanks to that, Daesung’s madam—who’d constantly threatened their lives—got swept up and died.

Their lives. Both Executive Director Ryu and Director Ryu owed Lee Taebaek their greatest debt.

It was a fleeting moment.

Thump, thump.

A pulsing sound emanated from the capsule. It was connected to the ceiling by thick red and blue cables.

Suddenly infused with vitality, it seemed less like a repair pod and more like…

‘A heart.’

The capsule looked like the heart of this cave.

Vrooooooom…

White mist replaced Director Ryu’s gasp. The cold began gnawing at the surroundings.

“It’s starting.”

Kang Hyeonseong said. The team members moved in perfect unison.

They formed a circular formation around the capsule, standing guard as a group.

Whoosh.

The cold crept up from their ankles like frostbite, turning their lips blue.

It was bone-chilling. Director Ryu hugged her shoulders, shivering uncontrollably.

“If they freeze to death like that—”

The worry slipped out amid the cold that pierced her marrow. Kang Hyeonseong replied impassively.

“Then they die.”

“…?”

“The Resistance is a group united by the greater cause of ‘resistance.’ That’s aimed at the massive forces lurking in the city. Lee Taebaek is the key to it. You know better than anyone, woman—this might be his greatest chance to make a breakthrough.”

That capsule, which looked far from high-tech, was a Mental Accelerator. True to its name, it artificially accelerated the speed of the mental world.

This was beyond what Lee Taebaek’s [Bullet Time] could achieve. His ability’s limit was tampering with the physical world’s clock.

To reach into the mental world’s spring, science was required.

Self-hypnosis. That was the Mental Accelerator’s function.

“Throwing away your life for the organization’s value… What’s the point in living like that?”

“Everyone assigns meaning their own way. Dying comfortably in a gold-plated bed, forgotten by all—versus dying alone in a back alley but stirring waves of remembrance.”

“…Like that.”

Then, something unbelievable happened.

The cold, which had spread like frost branches across the ceiling and floor, halted abruptly. The scene froze as if space-time itself was flash-frozen. Kang Hyeonseong’s jaw twitched amid the frost on his chin.

“Something’s wrong…?”

“N-No way! We ran simulations a million times—!”

“Then why?”

“Creator!”

At that moment, Jasbi burst through the door. She hopped over the cables and rushed straight to the capsule.

Before the team could grab her, Jasbi snatched up some loose cables from the floor and plugged them in.

Vrrrrrrrrroooom—!

An ominous hum reverberated. Static crackled across the displays hanging everywhere.

The cluster of displays, each showing different feeds…

Flick—

went dark all at once, as if on cue. The room plunged into pitch blackness.

Kang Hyeonseong felt even the last traces of his body heat drain away. But he realized it was just his imagination moments later.

Fwosh!

The screens lit up simultaneously. His eyes stung, but he strained to check the displays.

Crammed wall-to-wall…

The displays, broadcasting varied footage moments ago, now…

“That’s…?”

showed a single scene stitched together like patchwork leather. Like a picture made from plastered Post-it notes.

“A snake.”

Rock said. Hundreds of displays merged to reveal a colossal serpent, coiled tightly.

Drip, drip.

Pus oozed from its rough skin. Serpent scales.

Crack-ck-ck.

Gaps formed here and there. Scales peeled off, skin shedding. Everyone knew this was the molting process.

But…

No one expected what came next.

“…!”

Cables detached from the capsule as if unable to endure. The displays blackened from the edges inward.

The serpent’s form was devoured. Cracks spiderwebbed across its skin in panic.

When only one display remained…

Grrrrowl.

A beast snarled from within. Slit pupils like a reptile’s, but no mere snake.

Even its sullen eyes radiated overwhelming menace and ferocity.

Fumito collapsed to his knees.

Having devoured every myth due to his upbringing, he recognized it first.

“…Dragon…”