Episode 98. Today, I Am the Man in Black Himself
Heuguin (黑衣人).
A person dressed in black.
The meaning is simple and clear.
But the men in black spoken of in the murim are a little more subtle.
They don’t seem like complete idiots.
They give off the feeling that their martial arts might be fairly strong, too.
But the moment someone tears off their mask, their dignity plummets sharply. The point is to maintain the mystery. Perhaps no one in the murim has researched the essence of the man in black as much as I have.
An expert on men in black—that is me.
First, the basic posture of a man in black is crossing his arms.
The places men in black prefer to move through include walls, rooftops, above main gates, and alleyways, and the most important thing is their entrance. The standard is usually to be buried in the darkness, then walk out and cross one’s arms, but it is best to let out a low laugh without fail.
“Huhuhu……”
About three leisurely laughs like this.
The important thing is not to sound too frivolous.
A somewhat low pitch, somewhere between “huhu” and “heuheu,” you might say. Here, “hehehehe” or “hihihihi” are perverted laughs used by the Left Envoy or madmen, so I do not recommend them.
The man in black I envision has two key points: weighty like darkness, and mysterious like moonlight.
But if you examine it a little more deeply, the limits of a man in black are also clear.
In fact, in light of my experience often clashing with experts at the very pinnacle of the murim, most men in black were idiots.
Because truly powerful experts reveal themselves as they are.
In other words, if you borrow the mouths of those who love nitpicking and categorizing to roughly divide the levels of the murim, even if you rate them highly, men in black belong somewhere around first-rate experts, or slightly above or below that. But when I, who was more skilled than those fellows, act as a man in black, there is the following reason.
Because I want attention……
It may seem unlikely, but in the murim, there is a term that refers precisely to such people.
Gwansimjongja (關心種子).
It is a real phrase. If explained, it refers to the type who enjoys receiving other people’s attention by deliberately acting unusually.
If that is shortened into a murim-style epithet……
Gwanjong (關種) Lee Jaha.
That is me.
For the first time in a while, I took lodging not far from the Tyrant Sword Society, then, while waiting for the moon to rise, transformed into an attention-seeking man in black.
When I took out the black clothing the subordinates of the Black Cat Gang had prepared with care, even the noble spirit I held in my chest grew majestic.
Just when did men in black begin appearing in the murim?
As I gazed at the black garments, I became filled with confidence that I could somehow do the bad things I usually did even more wickedly.
If I stood with my arms crossed beneath the pouring moonlight, people would inevitably be confused as to whether I was an idiotic man in black, the mastermind behind the scenes, or the leader of a mysterious force (神祕勢力) suddenly appearing to shake the murim.
I stripped off all my ordinary clothes, then put on pitch-black shoes, dark black trousers and an upper garment, and tightened a gloomy belt around my waist. Finally, I even threw on a long black robe to emphasize that I was no pushover idiot, then raised the collar near my neck slightly.
I wondered whether there had ever been such a perfect man in black throughout the entire history of the murim.
Considering that going anywhere even slightly bright instead made one stand out far more to others, nine times out of ten, men in black were definitely attention seekers (關心種子).
If one were to raid a poor rural village where all the lights had been put out to save oil, such black clothing would be effective because of how dim it was, but most underworld factions kept their lights burning brightly all night.
And you would visit such a place wearing black?
Let’s not even talk about it……
I tucked the precious Flash Dagger and the fire striker (火攝子) inside my robe, and wore the Black Cat Fang, which boasted perfect compatibility with a man in black, at my waist.
The target was the Tyrant Sword Society’s main headquarters.
From now on, the mouth heavy, the footsteps light.
The gaze cold, the chest majestic.
While waiting for Nam Garak, who would be transforming into a man in black in the room next door, I sat cross-legged for a while and sank into meditation.
To sink into meditation usually meant erasing idle thoughts, calming the mind, exploring the Dao that seemed within reach yet not, and contemplating things like what life was and why beauties had disliked me.
But my head was filled entirely with.
Pork thigh bones, Dugang wine, kyaah……, those sons of bitches, those insolent bastards, Crossing the River on a Reed, and so on, all tangled together in chaos.
‘How chaotic. So chaotic.’
There is a man who becomes even more confused the deeper he falls into meditation?
That is me.
I focused my mind for a moment, then calmly settled my heart, shook off idle thoughts, maintained equanimity, contemplated the depths of my inner self, and then dozed off for a while.
A sweet nap.
.
.
.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
I looked at the man in black who opened the door and entered with my now double-lidded eyes, then was slightly startled.
‘Ah, it’s Nam Garak.’
Nam Garak looked at my face and said,
“Sect Leader, you must have been tired.”
“As if.”
While my nostrils flared from holding back a yawn, I inspected Nam Garak’s attire.
“Perfect. The Nammyeong Society’s preparedness is no joke either.”
Perhaps pleased by my praise, Nam Garak crossed his arms and laughed.
“Huhuhu, the Black Cat Gang is quite something as well.”
“We’re the Black Cat Gang, so we were prepared from the name onward. Let’s cover our faces and go.”
Nam Garak and I each took out what we had prepared.
Nam Garak had prepared a classic black hood that completely covered his head.
I, however, placed a pitch-black mask with a triangular line falling toward the chin below my eyes and tied the knot at the back of my head. This way, it did not ruin the shape of my hair, and it had the effect of making my appearance far cooler.
By contrast, Nam Garak’s shabby black hood was…… let’s not even talk about it.
Nam Garak was wearing the sort of sealed hood that only the dregs among lowly assassins would pull over their heads, so he looked like a pitch-black egg.
I looked at Nam Garak with a sneer.
“How rustic……”
“……!”
Nam Garak asked me,
“Do you have another one? If you do, lend it to me.”
After pondering briefly, I took a mask out of my bundle.
‘Thorough Manager Byeok.’
Nam Garak took off his hood and threw it aside, then wrapped the mask I handed him around his face and said,
“I’m lucky.”
“Let’s go.”
“How? Are you thinking of going out through the window and traveling across the rooftops?”
I shook my head.
“We should take the stairs.”
“Won’t people stare too much?”
I let out a slight snort, then replied.
“Enjoy it, endure it, hold out.”
That is the life of an attention seeker.
“Mm.”
“If we go around glaring in Paegeomhoe territory anyway, everyone will think we’re black-clad men from Paegeomhoe. As if they don’t have men in black too?”
“That’s true.”
We clomped down the stairs, paid for the room, then asked the innkeeper to throw away the clothes in the room. Seeing the thoroughly frightened owner nod over and over, saying he understood, there would be no trace of the two of us left inside.
As we went outside, I said to Nam Garak,
“Did you see that? This is the charm of the black-clad, the power of the black-clad, the advantage of the black-clad. It is the way of the jianghu that most fellows tremble the moment they see men in black.”
“Don’t tell jokes in such a serious tone. It’s confusing.”
As soon as I stepped outside, I looked at the moon hanging in the night sky.
“Wow, the moonlight……”
Nam Garak also gazed at the moon and let out an exclamation.
“Wow, it’s bright.”
“Nice.”
“It is.”
“A perfect night. The air’s dry, too. If it had rained, the whole operation might have failed, but even the night sky is helping us.”
“We’re lucky.”
Together with Nam Garak, I deliberately entered a bustling street packed with people and walked slowly. The moment people saw us, they opened the road wide.
Majesty itself.
I deliberately cracked my knuckles as I walked.
“They’ll be heavily guarded anyway.”
“They would be.”
“Listen, Black Nam. It’d be nice to set a fire, but you don’t necessarily have to.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
“It means all you have to do is make them furious somehow. Take a good look at the busy streets. Check the alleys too.”
When we lured out Paegeomhoe’s forces and fled, it would be best to use the chaos of the busy streets. Nam Garak was the greatest expert of Nammyeonghoe anyway, so even in terms of movement arts alone, he was second only to me. Probably only Hong Shin, my junior sister who specialized in lightness skill, could compete with Nam Garak in speed.
A while later, buried in the darkness with Paegeomhoe’s main headquarters in sight, Nam Garak and I burned with fighting spirit.
“So they dared to send assassins after me. Is the Paegeomhoe leader in that highest place over there?”
“Most likely.”
“I’ll smash it to pieces.”
It was a luxurious grand estate, like that of a great merchant leading a large trading company. The main building rose three stories, and even the black roofs I could make out at a glance numbered well over thirty. Above the huge gate hung a plaque reading Kang Clan Manor.
“Was the leader surnamed Kang?”
“Yeah.”
Seeing how old the plaque reading Kang Clan Manor was, Paegeomhoe was an unusual underworld organization. It felt like some bastard who had originally been rich had thrown himself into the black path and was making even more money. I studied the structure of the residence, then said to Nam Garak,
“Let’s move freely. But I’m definitely smashing that main building.”
“It’s been a while since my blood ran hot.”
The reason I hadn’t brought many subordinates in the first place was that there weren’t many experts capable of smashing this place and slipping away at leisure.
The virtue of a black-clad man is to make others furious, not to get caught and have his mask taken.
“I’m going first.”
I moved toward the main gate with my arms crossed, but my arms went numb, so I uncrossed them. The instant I felt my temper flare, I ran, sprang into the air, and shattered the plaque that read Kang Clan Manor with a single flying kick.
Kwaaaaaang!
Nam Garak’s flustered voice came from behind.
“No, wait……”
I infused both hands with wood-type energy and smashed the gate with straight punches.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Nam Garak came running in a panic and raised his voice.
“If you were going to do this, why did we even wear black?”
“Clothing merely assists madness. I am me.”
“Ha……”
I looked into the shattered front gate and thought. A man who is an expert in black-clad men, yet whose actions are not those of one—that is me.
“If you’re a man, you enter through the front gate.”
In an instant, the inside of Paegeomhoe grew noisy. Shouts mixed with the sounds of doors opening, and even the dogs they kept started barking.
The dog barking instantly set me off, and I roared.
“Stop the damned dogs from barking in the middle of the night! You sons of bitches!”
Nam Garak laughed with a strange sound and ran off somewhere. I shot up onto a roof and began to use my lightness skill. From inside, forces that looked pitch-black were pouring out.
In the midst of it all, I paused to admire the moonlight again.
“Wow…… the moonlight.”
Feeling like I might lose my mind to the moonlight at this rate, I sprang back into the air and drew Heukmyoa. I flicked the moonlight off Heukmyoa’s blade, but since there wasn’t anything in particular to cut, I put it back and charged straight ahead.
The roofs here and there grew higher and higher. Repeating the motion of stepping and springing upward, I arrived in an instant on the roof of the tallest building in Kang Clan Manor.
There, I looked down at the full view of Paegeomhoe with my arms crossed. It was no joke—my chest truly was swelling with grandeur.
“Hehehe, hehe, hahahahahaha!”
I spread both hands and declared war on Paegeomhoe.
“Come at me!”
Just as I expected, as though they had been about to launch some night raid, Paegeomhoe’s martial artists dressed fully in black stepped on walls and roofs as they swarmed toward me. Stupid bastards. If they dressed like that, how were they supposed to tell allies from enemies?
In any case, the situation was that all the attention was on me, and Nam Garak only had to set the fire.
Suddenly, furious that I had been sleeping poorly for days, I looked down at the roof. The thought that the bastard Paegeomhoe leader had eaten well, slept well, shat well—done everything, in any case—beneath this place made my anger surge.
As my fellow black-clad men slowly pressed toward me, I wrapped both hands in Yeomhwahyang.
Fwoooooosh!
Because I had been accumulating the inner power of Tugye, the flames wrapped around my hands burned more ferociously than ever.
Originally, it would be correct to call it the Flame Realm Great Hand Seal performed with both hands.
But right now, I had transformed into a black-clad man.
I combined the Yeomhwahyang wrapped around both hands above my head, then drove it straight down into the roof as if a Black Flame Dragon had descended as a vast stream of fire.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!