Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 80

When a person is overwhelmed by extreme fear, they say the sphincter and bladder become uncontrollable.

Neung Hwa-yang, who had fainted with eyes rolled back and foaming at the mouth, had even pissed herself.

-Trickle!

Seeing this, Mok Gyeong-un clicked his tongue.

“Hmm. It seems pain tolerance and fear are separate matters.”

As if disappointed, Mok Gyeong-un smacked his lips. Then, Cheong-ryeong’s voice rang in his ear.

-I think I know your true calling, you fiend.

“Pardon?”

-You’d make a perfect torturer. Terrorizing people like that, no one could possibly withstand it. No, they’d probably confess everything before you even start torturing them.

“You think so?”

-You’re exceptionally skilled at instilling fear. You really have a knack for this sort of thing.

“I wasn’t just trying to scare her, though.”

Mok Gyeong-un shrugged nonchalantly as he spoke.

-………

What?

Then was he really intending to peel off all her skin right before my eyes?

If so, he has shockingly depraved tastes.

Cheong-ryeong clicked her tongue as if dumbfounded.

-You’re utterly out of your mind.

Hearing her reaction, Mok Gyeong-un laughed and said,

“I’m kidding. Just kidding.”

-As if.

“No, really. No matter how much I enjoy seeing blood, I wouldn’t do something so inefficient.”

-Inefficient?

“Yes. You could call it a waste of time. It takes far too long. Plus, if she dies while I’m skinning her, it takes the fun out of it.”

-………

I get the feeling he’d do it given the chance.

It’s suspicious.

I wonder if this brat even perceives humans as different from animals, insects, or inanimate objects.

This Mok Gyeong-un’s concept of death is completely different from others.

As Cheong-ryeong was pondering this, Mok Gyeong-un spoke.

“But I did learn one thing.”

-And what’s that?

“It seems even without pain, you can’t do anything about fear.”

Since the woman had boasted about being immune to pain, he had tested whether she would also be fearless.

If that were truly possible, it would have been quite interesting.

However, contrary to Mok Gyeong-un’s hopes, Neung Hwa-yang had fainted, unable to overcome her terror.

Cheong-ryeong then remarked,

-For a living being, emotions are a realm that cannot be fully controlled no matter how much one trains.

“Perhaps you’re right.”

He couldn’t deny it.

And not just fear, either.

The latent anger buried within him since his grandfather’s death had not diminished over time but only continued to grow.

It was like surging lava.

At this rate, he couldn’t predict what he might end up doing.

“Ah, anyway, I wonder why this woman came to my room to do this?”

-What? You mean why she tried to mate with you, you mortal?

“…What a blunt and amusing way to put it.”

-Why are you acting innocent all of a sudden?

At Cheong-ryeong’s words, Mok Gyeong-un shrugged.

She then spoke in a mocking tone.

-Anyway, whether it was mating or whatever else, if it was a honey trap, it was truly a wasted effort.

The Mok Gyeong-un she had observed was not someone who would fall for such things.

He never takes anything at face value.

Even if it’s well-intentioned without any ulterior motives, Mok Gyeong-un harbors deep suspicions.

In a sense, he’s quite difficult to deceive.

“In any case, I’ll have to wake her up and ask why she did this. I don’t think she would have done something like this for no reason.”

-I agree with that.

From the moment the woman approached him knowing his name, she had a purpose.

And that purpose was definitely not physical intimacy.

-Thud!

Mok Gyeong-un pressed down hard on the center of her chest with his foot.

“Now, time to wake up.”

At that, the woman who had fainted soon woke up coughing.

“Cough, cough!”

Upon waking, she blankly stared ahead for a moment, then made eye contact with Mok Gyeong-un and immediately looked away in fright.

The fear that had taken hold did not dissipate in an instant, as if deeply embedded in her heart.

She hastily touched her skin with her hands.

Then she felt relieved.

‘Whew.’

If she had woken up to find her skin peeled off, it would have been truly unbearable.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case yet.

Looking down at her, Mok Gyeong-un smiled and said,

“You seem relieved?”

-Shudder!

“You need to be awake for me to see your expression when I peel off your skin.”

‘This, this madman…’

At Mok Gyeong-un’s words, goosebumps rose all over her body.

After becoming unable to feel pain, she thought fear had vanished.

But this guy was completely beyond normal bounds.

His way of thinking was utterly different.

-Thump! Thump! Thump!

Her heart began beating wildly again.

Mok Gyeong-un then spoke again with a snicker.

“It would be troublesome if you fainted again.”

At those words, she involuntarily blurted out something she shouldn’t have.

“P-please!”

‘Huh?’

What was she saying right now?

Did she really just beg?

During the process of becoming a Silent Strides agent, she had undergone so much training.

If captured by enemies, no matter what torture she endured, she must never open her mouth, and in the worst case, take her own life.

That was the fundamental directive for Silent Strides agents, regardless of rank.

-Bite!

Neung Hwa-yang bit down hard on her lip.

It was humiliating.

After becoming unable to feel pain, her emotions had withered, and she filled that void with the thrill of others’ suffering and death.

Amidst that, she thought she feared neither pain nor death.

But it seemed that wasn’t the case after all.

That emotion called fear had been lurking in a corner of her heart.

‘In the end, I’m no different.’

She, too, was just an ordinary human, nothing special.

As she wore a blank expression, she soon looked at Mok Gyeong-un and spoke as if she had made up her mind.

“Just kill me.”

“That might be difficult. The constraint for this checkpoint is ‘no killing’.”

“………”

“Instead, I can make one promise.”

“Promise?”

“If you answer my questions, I’ll skip this enjoyable process and just let you go.”

A tone as if offering a favor.

For a moment, it seemed like a tempting proposal.

However, Neung Hwa-yang gave no response.

Seeing her attitude, Mok Gyeong-un grinned and asked,

“The question is simple. Did you come here of your own accord? Or did someone send you?”

“……..”

“Suddenly at a loss for words, I see.”

“…….”

She had barely overcome her fear and composed herself, so how could she readily open her mouth?

A Silent Strides agent does not divulge information even at the risk of death.

With a defiant look in her eyes, she spoke.

“I’ll be waiting in hell.”

With those words, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue.

Then she tried to bite down on it.

However,

-Clang!

“Urk!”

Something solid coiled between her teeth, preventing her from biting her tongue.

‘Wh-what?’

She couldn’t see anything.

Yet this thing caught between her teeth was incredibly solid.

What was it?

As she felt perplexed, Mok Gyeong-un spoke words she couldn’t comprehend.

“Soha. You said you wanted a body, right?”

‘!?’

What was he talking about?

Could there be someone else here besides them?

She sensed no presence at all.

-Shiver!

Just then, a chill ran down her spine.

Something cold and eerie seemed to be caressing her hair, and she felt nauseous.

At that moment, Neung Hwa-yang doubted her own eyes.

-Flicker!

Before her eyes, a blurry figure appeared upside down.

It was a girl with graying hair, but her pupils were white, which was deeply unnerving.

As this upside-down girl drew closer, she didn’t feel human at all.

‘G-ghost…’

“Mmph!”

Neung Hwa-yang tried to twist her body and sit up.

But not only was Mok Gyeong-un stepping on her, something was restraining her entire body, preventing her from moving at all.

‘Don’t come! Don’t come!’

Her fear had reached its peak, bursting blood vessels and turning the whites of her eyes red.

-Slither!

Finally, for the first time in her life, she experienced something possessing her body.

It was a sensation on a whole different level from the five senses.

“Urgh… Urk.”

Before long, black, bulging veins popped up all over her body as she convulsed violently.

***

Two men were swiftly walking through the corridor.

They were Mok Yu-cheon and the emissary of the Righteous Alliance’s Silent Strides, Ma-sang.

Their hurried destination was none other than Mok Gyeong-un’s room.

“Damn it. We better not be late.”

Ma-sang muttered in an irritated tone.

Mok Yu-cheon gave no response to his words.

That was because he had finally confessed to Ma-sang that Mok Gyeong-un was his half-brother.

He didn’t want to talk about it if he could help it.

However, he couldn’t bear to leave the guy to die helplessly with his energy channels and danjeon destroyed.

So he had prostrated himself in apology to Ma-sang and revealed the truth.

At first, Ma-sang couldn’t contain his anger.

[That lunatic is the third son of Yeon Mok Sword Manor?]

He even found it absurd.

But in the face of Mok Yu-cheon’s continued apologies, he barely suppressed those emotions.

Who would have thought that the one who had driven the Silent Strides agents to their deaths would be the scion of a renowned righteous faction?

Ma-sang spoke in a hushed voice.

“Mok Yu-cheon. Can you keep your word?”

“…I’ll try my best.”

“Trying your best isn’t enough. If the situation weren’t like this, I would have classified him as an obstacle to the mission and eliminated him, regardless of your request.”

This was true.

Righteous faction or not, they had suffered too much damage because of Mok Gyeong-un.

He was extremely dangerous, and for the sake of the future, it was right to remove him.

However, there were only four Silent Strides agents left.

The probability of successfully completing the mission had become far too low.

“You must persuade Mok Gyeong-un. For the sake of ensuring the deaths of those who fell by his hands were not in vain.”

“I understand.”

Mok Yu-cheon reaffirmed in a firm voice.

The acting emissary of the Silent Strides, Ma-sang, wanted only one thing.

Not Mok Gyeong-un’s heartfelt apology, but for the brothers to become temporary emissaries alongside them and fulfill the mission.

‘Can I persuade him?’

To be honest, he wasn’t just half-hearted but lacked confidence.

However, he had to accomplish it.

Even if the guy had changed from before, Mok Yu-cheon didn’t think his ability to make rational judgments had diminished.

If that were the case, he wouldn’t have survived here.

‘Even if he’s changed, he’s still from a righteous faction.’

He believed the guy hadn’t forgotten those roots.

Mok Yu-cheon thought he should emphasize this point to persuade him.

Perhaps this was an opportunity.

If they aided the emissaries of the Righteous Alliance’s Silent Strides and played a crucial role in the downfall of the Heaven and Earth Society, they might be able to shed the disgrace of being expelled from the Yeon Mok Sword Manor.

‘Yes. He’ll want that too.’

As Mok Yu-cheon sorted out in his mind how to approach the conversation, they arrived in front of Mok Gyeong-un’s room.

However,

‘Huh?’

The two men standing at the door looked at each other in bewilderment.

No presence could be felt from inside the room.

Mok Yu-cheon asked,

“…Didn’t you say one of the agents had already made a move?”

“I did. That’s why we’re rushing here.”

They had hurried here with quick steps, not wanting to attract attention by using lightness techniques in the corridor.

The perplexed men decided to open the door.

‘Huh?’

As expected, there was no one inside.

However, the bed in the room was broken, and it was quite a mess.

It was evident at a glance that something had happened here.

Seeing this, Mok Yu-cheon spoke with a darkened expression.

“Could we be too late?”

“………”

Inspecting the room, Ma-sang replied to that question.

“We don’t know for certain yet. If that woman completed her mission, Mok Gyeong-un should be lying on the bed, half-crippled.”

“But neither of them is here.”

“…Perhaps she took him to the captain.”

“Captain?”

“Yes.”

Among the surviving emissaries of the Silent Strides, there was a captain who commanded them.

It was he who had ordered them to deal with Mok Gyeong-un.

Ma-sang spoke in a slightly apologetic tone.

“We still don’t know, so just bear with it for a bit. Let’s go see the captain.”

“…Alright.”

They closed the door to Mok Gyeong-un’s room and headed downstairs.

The captain of the Silent Strides emissaries who had infiltrated this place was said to be staying in the room at the far right end of the 2nd floor.

They were on the 4th floor.

As they were heading down,

-Murmur murmur!

Boys had gathered in the center of the lower floor, and there was some commotion.

Wondering what was going on, Ma-sang hesitated and couldn’t go down, looking disconcerted.

“What’s wrong?”

“Damn it all…”

“What?”

Warriors with red belts were dragging out a blood-soaked boy.

Moreover, not only that, but another boy with one leg severed was also being held by both arms by the red-belted warriors.

Looking at them, Ma-sang was at a loss.

Mok Yu-cheon whispered a question.

“What the hell is going on?”

In response, Ma-sang gritted his teeth and whispered back.

“…They’re both our agents.”

‘!?’

Those two were none other than Silent Strides agents.

Just what was the meaning of this?

As they were pondering,

“Hahahaha! Finding the emissaries is all thanks to you!”

The red-belted warriors who had caught them laughed heartily, patting someone’s back and praising them.

It was none other than,

‘Mok Gyeong-un?’

Mok Yu-cheon’s face instantly stiffened.