That crazy bastard.

Sa-yoon wasn’t sure if the feeling that surged through him was relief or exhilaration. The only clue was the light tremor running through his fingertips, a faint hum of electricity. He clenched his fists and drew a sharp breath, fighting an impulsive desire to forget where he was and just fight Han Geon-joo, right then and there.

A fully-realized S-Class Han Geon-joo.

How long had he waited for this?

A flicker of genuine excitement touched his usually impassive face. Just then, one of Geon-joo’s shadows brutally swatted aside a charging member of Scorpion.

“Keuk!”

The man, struck hard in the stomach, was sent flying into a wall. Sa-yoon faintly heard someone gasp in shock.

A slow smile spread across his lips.

He’d known for a while that Geon-joo had guts, but he never imagined he would make his grand debut as a Shadow Lord against Scorpion itself. It was such a wildly audacious move, something others wouldn’t even dream of, that it left both friend and foe completely stunned.

“Hyung?”

And yet, the voice that called out to him was so nonchalant, like a puppy barking once after causing some mischief. It was almost comical. Sa-yoon, who had doubted how much stronger Geon-joo could possibly get just by unlocking one skill, now had to face the ringing consequences of his underestimation.

The man he’d once looked down on had somehow climbed right over his head.

A black aura shimmered over the blindfolded Han Geon-joo’s shoulders. The shadows moved like his own limbs, raging like fire at a mere glance from him before settling into the calm of a still lake. It was a level of mastery that could easily rival Lee Han’s.

“Get that bastard! Get him first!”

While they’d been stunned, Scorpion grunts had swarmed the area. In truth, most of the innocent auction-goers had probably fled during the first explosion. It was safe to assume that anyone left, besides his own team, was with Scorpion. Half of them charged towards the Desert’s Punishment, while the other half rushed Han Geon-joo. Sa-yoon found himself completely ignored, a fact that made him laugh. Getting their attention was as easy as breathing.

“Kngh…!”

One of the charging men suddenly threw his head back with a choked groan. A low, strangled sound escaped him as he collapsed. The man in front of him suffered the exact same fate.

Two, three, four.

In the blink of an eye, four men went down in the same manner. The group at the vanguard finally noticed something was wrong and hesitated in confusion. Sa-yoon glanced at the necks of the fallen men and readjusted his grip on his dagger.

“You’re late.”

At his light rebuke, a figure dropped from the ceiling.

“I had to clean up outside, too. I’d say this is pretty fast.”

This is when you’re supposed to praise me and say I did a good job, hyungnim.

The man with the striking blue eyes added in a syrupy voice, his eyes crinkling into a smile. The potion must have worn off, as the hair that had fallen to his chin had returned to its original silver. As Yen began to whine about his hair tie breaking, Sa-yoon advised him to get a grip before he decided to shave his head like a monk. He then cracked his neck, loosening his muscles.

There were roughly thirty enemies in sight. Only about ten of them felt like skilled fighters. Taking down thirty men with four people wasn’t impossible. Not unless their entire headquarters decided to show up, anyway.

Well, they’ve probably sent the signal by now, so reinforcements are likely scrambling to get here. But if they could wipe out this first wave, any reinforcements would just be running into a massacre.

“Box them in.”

At his command, Yen moved first, heading for the auction hall entrance. Gyeongjin pulled Jaehee, who had been guarding him, and moved to the right, while Sa-yoon leaped towards the platform where the Desert’s Punishment was.

“What the—!”

The Scorpion members, who had been clustered together trying to make sense of the situation, panicked as Sa-yoon’s team pressed in on them from all four sides. Sa-yoon spotted the man in the rabbit mask hiding among them and gave him a sharp, predatory smile.

“We meet again.”

It was time to hunt the scorpions that had plagued him for so long.

“Han Geon-joo, you focus on protecting the Desert’s Punishment. Don’t take off the blindfold, just in case. If we lose that artifact, this whole fight is for nothing. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Lee Jaehee, you’re no killer. Just make sure you protect Han Gyeongjin.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yen, you—”

“Yes~”

“Idiot, I haven’t even finished my sentence.”

Sa-yoon chided him for the overly eager response, pulling his dagger from a Scorpion member’s neck before kicking him in the solar plexus. The man behind him was unlucky enough to get caught in the impact, and the two of them went down in a heap. Satisfied with this display of perfect synchronization, Sa-yoon saw the next challenger rush him with a war cry.

B-Class, maybe?

Gauging his opponent’s level, Sa-yoon kicked a nearby table at him. An Awakened could have easily smashed the table, but the tablecloth draped over it was another matter. For the brief moment the flimsy fabric obscured the man’s vision, Sa-yoon’s hand clamped down on his face. The force from his leg-drive off the ground was transferred directly into the man, slamming his head into the floor.

CRACK!

A sickening crunch echoed through the room, loud enough to suggest the skull had cracked first. The cloth plastered to the man’s features began to bloom with red.

“If this is the best you’ve got, we’re going to have a problem. Where are your executives?”

Disappointment flickered across Sa-yoon’s face at their surprisingly poor showing. In contrast, the remaining Scorpion members stared in horror, having just watched him take down three men in under a minute. Curses and screams filled the air. One tried to flee from Sa-yoon, turning his back, but there was no safety there either. A shadow instantly shot out, constricting and then piercing the man’s throat.

Flee backwards, and a shadow gets you. Flee to the right, and you’re torn apart by a summoned beast. By the time they saw that and tried to slip out to the left, it was already too late. Most of them collapsed before they could even take a step, a needle they never saw coming embedded in their necks.

It was hell on all four sides. With no way to advance or retreat, the Scorpion members were slowly being forced into the center. Twenty of them left.

BOOM!

“…Ugh!”

Han Geon-joo was attacked by a man who suddenly broke through, forcing him back a step. The ten skilled fighters were finally beginning to make their presence known. But the same was true for Sa-yoon’s side.

“Why are you here…” the man who now stood at the front, his three comrades dead, muttered in a pained whisper. A long scar ran from his forehead, across one eye, and down to his cheekbone.

“You know me?” Sa-yoon asked, amused. The man’s brow twitched as if he’d heard something deeply insulting.

“You don’t know me?”

“I’ve seen a lot of guys who look like you. Are you… Chun-pal?”

At the ridiculously unfitting name for a man with such Western features, the opponent’s gaze turned icy.

“Fine. Maybe you’ll remember after you lose an eye, too.”

The moment the man sneered and charged with his sword drawn, Sa-yoon rolled a small bomb across the floor. As he backed away, the man’s foot landed squarely on top of it. He staggered, and just as he lost his balance, the bomb detonated. The explosion rocked Sa-yoon’s eardrums, and he moved.

He plunged into the smoke, still thick with embers, a shroud of frost energy clinging to his skin. Swoosh! As expected, the man had survived the blast, and his sword sliced through the smoke, aiming for Sa-yoon’s neck. He parried it with the side of his hand and threw his dagger. A frustrating sound of it cutting through empty air told him the man had already moved. The sharp sound of a blade slicing followed.

Slice.

He reacted just in time, losing only a few strands of hair. In that same instant, he pinpointed the man’s location and swung his arm. His dagger, held in a reverse grip, plunged into something soft. Thwump! Judging by the height of his hand, it had to be his face or temple.

“Guhk!”

Hearing the groan, Sa-yoon dragged the embedded dagger downwards, carving a line as he closed the distance. As he got closer, he could see the man’s face clearly, even through the acrid smoke.

Drip. Drip.

Blood was pouring down. Just as he’d thought, his dagger had sliced from the man’s temple down to his jaw.

While pressing the man with his dagger, Sa-yoon used his free hand to rummage through his sleeve and pull out a small vial of poison. He willingly took a wild swing from the man’s sword on his arm as he popped the lid with his thumb. The potent stench of the toxin, sharp enough to numb the senses, hit him first. He splashed it in the man’s eyes, and a system window announced that the [Dirty Play] skill had been activated, followed by the man’s scream.

“You treacherous bastard!”

“Says the member of a criminal organization?”

Sa-yoon laughed, kicking the man’s knee to buckle him, and released his frost energy. Critically wounded and now poisoned, the man had no strength to resist as the cold seeped into him, freezing him solid. Around them, the aftereffects of the explosion subsided, and the smoke began to clear. Sa-yoon grabbed another stunned Scorpion member, slammed him to the ground, and sighed.

“Where are your executives?”

The man he just fought was A-Class. It was impossible for Scorpion not to have any S-Class members here. As he scowled, he heard a crazed laugh. It wasn’t from in front of him. He turned his head and saw a man with a shadow pierced through his throat, spewing blood as he cackled.

“He said… if we couldn’t secure the item… to bury it.”

The man gave a final, maniacal grin, his teeth stained red with blood.

Bury it?

The question had barely formed in his mind when he heard it. Beep… beep… A faint, intermittent sound, one that had been drowned out by the ceaseless noise of battle.

The sound seemed to be coming from everywhere. Sa-yoon’s eyes widened. He quickly activated [Eye of the Genius] and scanned the status windows of all the remaining Scorpion members.

C-Class, C-Class, B-Class, A-Class, A-Class, A-Class…

There were none.

There were maybe half a dozen whose stats were comparable to an S-Class, but not a single one was actually ranked S-Class.

They’re sacrificial pawns.

The realization struck him at the same moment another explosion roared, and the Pathfinder auction house began to collapse. Sa-yoon looked up to see a massive slab of concrete, the size of a house, plummeting towards him. The grand, two-story auction house was coming down in an instant.