I opened Mind’s Eye, and at the same time the man’s information popped up.

Name: Minjun Gu (Value – 370)
Occupation: Regenerator
Titles: None
Stats:
Str 14d
Agi 11d
Con 19c
Int 10f
Mag 8f
Potential(62/235)
Special Note: Has a mental disorder.
Skills: Regeneration(Lv1)

How should I put this.

‘What a joke.’

Regenerator was an unusual occupation, but that was all. He had recently awakened and gained an occupation as well, but his stat and growth potential was hopeless. It couldn’t even be considered average.

‘The physical stat of the average healthy adult male was 10.’

So as to say, his stats were only 1.5 times higher than the average healthy adult male, though of course, just that was still enough to exhibit a level of performance that didn’t lose out to most athletes.

He had a cocky attitude, and his smile even gave off a feeling of being unhinged. He appeared to think himself ‘special’ unlike others. I had seen many such people before.

“Fuck, what an unfair world. Some can labor for a day and would earn at most 100,000 won, while some live without a care in the world, strutting about with women on either side.”

Syria spoke up.

“Stop your nonsense and get lost.”

While she was rather pleasant towards me, she didn’t lose out when it came to making cutting remarks. But apparently her action only further stirred up the man’s anger.

“What, you were a mama’s boy? I’m so envious of women protecting you. Lose the dick will you, retard-”

The man’s neck twisted around with a ‘thwack!’ sound. Syria had thrown a punch and struck his chin. She was, in fact, a fighting mania. She had quite the enthusiasm for it, to the point of even receiving personal coaching from a pro.

“So uncivil to someone you just met. I would turn down boorish men like you, regardless of capability.”

Syria winced as she dusted off her fist. Her hot temper contrary to her appearance was the same as ever.

An ordinary person would have gone down with that single blow, but right away the man’s neck returned to normal. His regeneration skill had activated.

“This crazy bitch…did you just hit me? Hit, me?”

The man heavily reeked of alcohol. He wasn’t able to restrain himself, and was trying to vent his bottled up stress. The man rummaged on his self and finally took out a blood-stained knife. There was a mix of blood and fur on the knife, clearly the traces of small animals. The vestiges of cruelty and slaughter. He was a single phase away from turning his morbid interest to humans.

“Look look. He took out a knife.”

“Sh-, shouldn’t we stop it?”

“How exactly can we do that? Someone must have called the police.”

The surroundings bursted into commotion in moments. And at that moment.

“Ahhhhh!”

Someone screamed as the man began to move, swinging the knife.

Smack!

“Cough!”

At the same time the man was sent rolling on the ground, and I stepped forwards as I warmed up my hands.

As a principle, I wasn’t too fond of people threatening other people. Many countries had ended up disappearing because of internal discord in the past. Infighting when all of humanity needed to band together as one…only the most arrogant and overly confident could act this way. As such, if something like that ever occured before me, I would do just one thing.

“This bas-…kuek!”

The moment he lifted the knife, I smacked the hand holding it. The man was struck by his own fist and tumbled over like a frog. The man stood up again, bleeding from both nostrils, brandishing the knife without form as he tried to stab me.

Crack!

“Guaaargh!”

I struck his elbow in the instant the man leaned his body forward, and his arm holding the knife twisted in a direction that wasn’t normally possible. He dropped the knife as a result, but there was no chance that I was going to stop here. Many people would be killed if a person like this gained power. There was a time in the past, when I tried everything to save these kinds of people as well, but I had realized that it was all in vain.

I would do just one thing. Wring out the very notion of violence from his mind. In other words, the stick was the only cure to a mad dog.

“You’ve crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed.”

The world was unfair. How else would the saying of ‘being born with a silver spoon’ have come about. The saying also applied to the standards of awakened, because it was most often the case that potential, stat growth and the like were decided from birth.

Someone would look at me and feel envy, even hate, thinking — couldn’t I live as I pleased with the overwhelming potential and the memories I held?

But responsibility followed power. When those with power shirked responsibility, everything would collapse. I had witnessed countless such happenings. Besides, it wasn’t as if having or not having power made any difference to the ‘line’ that should be respected by all. And this man right here had crossed that line.

Thwack! Crunch!

It was a staggering show of violence. Blood splattered and bone broke. It took no time at all for the man’s face to become caked with blood. The spectacle made even Syria cringe, who was raised in a military household.

“Ple, pleease…sba, sbare me.”

The man begged with his hands held together. Crawling over to me like a dog, he clutched onto the leg of my pants. Several of his teeth were knocked out, making him unable to speak properly. It would be hard to expect much growth as an awakened from him, even if he could heal.

Someone may look at this scene and question, wasn’t this too much? But if I was powerless then I would have died instead, and a man who had tasted blood could go on to harm the lives of many more people. The possibility of saving more of humanity could disappear because of this one man.

The man sobbed as he begged for his life, and I gripped him by the hair.

“How does it feel to be on the receiving end?”

“Sa, sab, save…”

[The opponent has completely submitted. Right now it is possible to dominate the man for 20% value at 74 points.]

I frowned, and at the same time ‘Cold Blood’ activated, cooling down my mind. The man was psychologically in a state of complete submission, but 74 points would be too much of a waste in dominating this kind of person.

I leaned down close to the man’s ears and spoke.

“You’ll have to remain satisfied with the small animals you killed until now. Minjun Gu, if I ever hear the tiniest news about you…I’ll make it so you’ll be screaming for death instead.”

Tremble!

The man began to tremble like a rattling poplar. A person he had met for the first time knew his name. He looked at me with eyes full of fear and horror, then swallowing with a gulp, he began to nod his head like a chicken pecking at rice.

I firmly straightened myself up, and I felt the gazes from the surrounding immediately after. Everyone appeared to be petrified. It was so quiet that the sound of a coin dropping could break the silence; the scene they’d witnessed must have been that much overwhelming.

‘I got too worked up.’

It wasn’t as if I exhibited any supernatural power, and it was somewhat of a relief that I was wearing sunglasses.

I slowly moved my feet, leaving the scene.

..

I was a little concerned about videos, photos and the like may of the incident spreading on the internet, but in just a single day my worries were proved to be pointless. News of events that easily shadowed the previous scenario were flooding the internet here and there.

ㅡFire-breathing man.
ㅡA bank robbed clean. The doing of an invisible man!
ㅡ100m world new record, broken.
ㅡA group of psychics revealing themselves to be the ‘Order of Justice Incarnate’. Facing off with evil.
ㅡPeople who have exceeded human limits. Who are they?
ㅡCurrent situation of Korea drawing global attention.

This had happened over the course of a mere several days. Videos which gained hundreds of thousands, millions of views upon upload were in abundance. They were being constantly deleted, but it had now reached a point of being unable to be stopped.

‘There should be an announcement from the government soon.’

This momentum, couldn’t be stopped. The people who had gained powers all of a sudden were displaying it to the public and causing chaos. Fortunately, as a consequence, because there was still no humans powerful enough to overcome modern weapons, they were being arrested one after the other. But even then, too many people had come to know about them. It wasn’t possible to pass it off as ‘rumour’ now; the number of witnesses didn’t stop at just one or two.

There will be an official announcement. Perhaps Korea would set the precedent of acknowledge the existence of ‘gates’. Minshik would most likely exert himself at that time. He was the first awakened to be acknowledged, and was preparing to become the forerunner.

‘Change is coming.’

It was the beginning of a great change.

‘In fact, this is fine.’

There was a positive side as well to this kick start. Those showing any ‘seed’ of potential could be isolated right from the beginning. Thanks to commotion breaking out, world-wide attention was directed toward Korea. This meant that, under Korean and Minshik’s lead, the possibility events progressing more systematically had increased. I would gain a little more freedom of movement if that happened, because Minshik would be under the spotlight then, creating the perfect environment for me to move in the shadows. Moreover…he hadn’t been acting thoughtlessly after all.

‘I never expected that he would drag political and business figures into the gate.’

It was an extreme decision, but thanks to that the country was in upheaval. Minshik must be thinking of showing them reality while hunting the zombie king, and at the same time leaving an impression on them to make them help him. If he had planned that much, then it seemed I needn’t worry much about him.

“It seems that events are playing out more interestingly than expected? Your smile looks very much indecent.”

Jörmungandr spoke from right beside me.

I slowly nodded my head.

“Because I think the commotion he raised may be leading in a positive direction.”

“He, as in that goofy man? The pitiful one that could not even speak properly upon seeing me?”

I was told that Minshik became a stuttering fool upon seeing Jörmungandr after he woke up. But most men would all act the same in the face of Jörmungandr’s mind-blowing beauty.

‘Was I underestimating him?’

Of course, I could make an exact judgement only after I see how he handles the aftermath, but I felt that he had perfectly set the background for the bigger picture to come. He had planned and acted on it over the course of a mere several days. He had an amazing initiative. I did wonder if it was too early, but the upper echelon wouldn’t move unless an impact of this level was given. On top of it all, political and business figures were also swept into the mess…

Of course, preparing for the worst case scenario, I had given some words of warnings to Syria in advance. She would doubtless handle things well.

‘I can’t fall behind.’

The preparations had ended.

I breathed in deeply and turned around. I was looking at a small room for surgery, containing a white bed and all sorts of surgery tools. And there was a man wearing a doctor’s gown, a mask, and a pair of gloves.

“Putting that aside, just what are you up to? This seems to be another hospital.”

“Body modification.”

To be specific, I was about to undergo an operation to improve the circulation of mana. But to do that I had to make a hole in my head. It was one reason why I shaved my head. For this, I had ‘dominated’ a doctor who was an authority on brain surgery. It had cost me a whole 7,000 points.

Wearing a gown for patients, I laid down on the bed.

“Will you really be doing it without anaesthetic?”

“Yes.”

“You may even enter shock from excessive pain.”

“It’s fine, so please proceed right away.”

It was an operation to drill open the blocked Hundred Convergences point. At the same time I had to release streams of mana, endlessly intertwining them into helical forms. It could never be done in a sleeping state. Paralyzing my senses wouldn’t be allowed either. It just goes to show how delicate an operation this would be.

I had finally found the way after examining the insides of Uriel Diablo’s body.

‘I’ll conquer my limits.’

I grit my teeth. The doctor took hold of a scalpel, and that signalled the beginning of the surgery.

..

(Syria)

I nervously looked around my surroundings. The ‘gates’ located in Gyeongbokgung Palace wasn’t just one. The gate which had appeared after the death of the possessed animal still remained without disappearing. When I had entered that gate, around 50 people had come into view. There were men and women aged between 20 and 60 at most, and they had been trembling from anxiety.

“Just where is this place!”

“Let me out! How long do I need to stay here?”

“But outside…there are zombies.”

“G-, gonna die. Everyone’s gonna die.”

It was a cave lit by several torches. Each and every person didn’t hide their fear. Several days had already passed but no one could leave the cave. Those that did had all died. Once, a zombie had come inside, but everyone would have died fleeing if it weren’t for the Chinese siblings.

“Doesn’t it look like the Chinese know something?”

“They’re just doing nothing but waiting.”

“Hey there! It looks like you know something so can you please get out with it frankly!”

Linlin and Shaoting were standing by the cave entrance silently. Finally, someone came walking in through that entrance.

Thud!

Several zombie heads rolled around the ground. The protesting people all closed their mouths tightly. A man covered all over in blood had made an appearance for the first time. Linlin and Shaoting slightly lowered their heads towards the man.

“Fortunately everyone’s gathered without dying.”

The man was Minshik. Shaking off the blood on his sword, Minshik continued to speak.

“Among the people here, there should those that were invited by me, and those that weren’t. I have only one thing to say to you all. If you want to live, follow my words. Zombie King Akshiz is no walk in the park.”

A man spoke up.

“Wait! You’re the one who called me to Gyeongbokgung Palace? Ju-, just how on earth do you know about the ‘secret’ which only I know?”

He was a three times elected senator. The reason why the man with politics ingrained deep into his bones had no choice but to head toward Gyeongbokgung Palace, was all because of Minshik. Not only that, the group of people included the son of a CEO in his teens, a prosecutor famous for turning black into white, and more. They weren’t many, but each and every one of them were people with big influences.

Minshik chuckled.

“Secret? There is so many that I don’t know where to begin. There should be a limit to crime and corruption. Oh…or is it because of that? Personally murdering your own cousin-”

“Stop! D-, do you have any idea who you’re shooting off your mouth to?”

“Well, such matters are of no concern here.”

Minshik shrugged and rested his sword on his shoulder.

“We will need ‘solidarity’ in order to survive and leave this place. That is why ‘Zombie King Akshiz’ must be killed. Follow my lead, and never question me. Those useless will be thrown aside, and food will be distributed according to performance. We aren’t that well off ourselves, you see.”

“Just where is this place? And what are those things like zombies?”

When a young man asked about this, Minshik replied indifferently.

“They are monsters that will invade Earth in the future. They bite humans on the neck and tear out their innards without mercy. The reason why you all have ‘awakened’ is precisely for the sake of protecting Earth, humanity, from those monsters.”

“Have I possibly truly become someone with super powers? You mean it wasn’t just a rumour?”

Minshik nodded and then spoke.

“You all have good luck. For as long as you follow my lead well, you may even earn an occupation and skills, becoming a true ability user.”

Everyone was shocked into silence.

Minshik spoke with a big smile on his face.

“Welcome, to the rehearsal hall for the hell to come.”