#046.
Vrooom-
Dawn.
A black sedan smoothly advancing down a wide-open, unobstructed road.
The meticulous Chairman Kang had made arrangements, sending people to ensure a smooth passage the moment he made contact.
Thanks to that, I was making my way toward my destination, a secret hideout, comfortably seated in the sedan.
"Wh-what?!"
Along with the driver's warning cry.
Screech!
My body lurched forward from the sudden stop.
A situation that occurred in an instant, but I had prevented my face from slamming into the front seat by tensing my arms.
I stared straight ahead at the sudden change in circumstances.
What the bright headlights illuminated was a person.
'On an 8-lane road?'
A person in the middle of an 8-lane road, of all places.
Normally, one might suspect it was a ghost, but that couldn't be it.
Supernatural beings like ghosts could only be seen after the full-scale apocalypse had begun.
It wasn't a ghost.
Nor was it a drunk one might occasionally see.
"..."
Three high schoolers in thick long padded coats.
They were glaring at the sedan with fierce eyes.
No, it wasn't just a glare.
They took stances.
They extended their thumbs and index fingers to form the shape of a gun and aimed.
Vrrm!
A cluster of light gathering at their index fingers.
The moment I confirmed that, I didn't hesitate.
Crash!
I shattered the sedan's front windshield and leaped out.
Swoosh!
The energy bullet fired by the punk came hurtling toward me.
A trait I had experienced not long ago.
At the time, it had been difficult to discern its direction and trajectory.
'I can see it.'
Now, it was all too clear.
The rise in dynamic visual acuity due to full-body reinforcement.
Furthermore, my reinforced lenses assisted this; nothing could escape my eyes now.
Bang!
I detonated the hurtling energy bullet with my fist.
"Wh-what?!"
They seemed flustered by how easily it had been neutralized.
But it was too soon to be surprised.
Thud!
I kicked off the ground and sprinted.
Not with the help of the heels I usually wore, but using the pure strength of my body.
However.
Swoosh!
I shot forward like a loosed arrow and closed the distance to the punk who had fired the energy bullet in an instant.
"...?"
He sent me a questioning gaze as I closed the distance in a fleeting moment.
To the punk who still hadn't properly grasped the situation—
Thud!
I drove my fist straight into his solar plexus.
"Kuhuk!"
With a groan that sounded like his breath was cut off, the punk who had soared high—
Thud!
Fell face-first onto the ground.
A single blow.
With that one strike, I had rendered one Awakened combat-incapacitated.
'Amateurs.'
I could tell from that single exchange.
They were rookies.
Even the punks affiliated with Black Moon had experience killing people and harbored murderous intent, but I couldn't feel that kind of momentum from these guys.
"Graaah!"
He rushed at me with a shout.
Rip!
Seeing his developed muscles tear through his padded jacket, he seemed to have a brawler-type trait like Oliver.
"Got you!"
The punk who had charged like a wild boar wrapped his arms around my waist.
Crack!
He squeezed my waist with a strength worthy of being called monstrous.
A force that would rupture every internal organ and lead to death if I hadn't bloomed my trait.
"..."
Of course, it was completely useless against me.
My muscles, grown through full-body reinforcement, were harder than his squeezing strength.
"Nnngh!"
No matter how much strength he used, his arms couldn't dig through my muscles.
"Hold on tight!"
One of the high schoolers, failing to realize this—
"Haahap!"
He let out a sharp yell and furrowed his brows.
Was he doing anything particularly special?
No.
He was merely concentrating.
But that wasn't an empty act.
Squirm.
I could feel an alien sensation infiltrating my body.
'Telekinesis.'
A type of superpower that allows one to exert physical force on objects without touching them through extreme concentration.
He was using that telekinesis to damage my heart.
No matter how much full-body reinforcement I had achieved, if my insides were tampered with regardless of my body's toughness, even I couldn't help but take damage.
Therefore.
Crunch!
I broke the arms of the punk wrapped around my waist.
"Gaaah!"
Into the face of the punk retreating with a scream—
Smack!
I drove my fist right in.
After watching him collapse for a moment, I sent two hidden daggers flying from inside my clothes.
Thud, thud-thud!
"Aaack!"
He collapsed screaming from the wounds piercing both thighs.
Telekinesis is an extremely powerful trait when used well, but it demands tremendous concentration.
When it gets disturbed by even the slightest shock, there's no way he could maintain focus with wounds piercing his thighs.
"Kkeug, kkeueuugh...."
Two had lost consciousness.
And one was rolling on the ground screaming.
"You."
I firmly stepped on the head of the punk collapsed and spewing screams.
This was the difference in our eye level, and in our strength.
"Your objective?"
"Kkeuk...."
Only groans answered in place of words.
So.
Press!
"Gaaah!"
I pressed down on his head even harder.
Crackle, crunch!
If I applied any more force here, his head would probably burst.
"You'll do well to answer quickly if you don't want to die. I'm not exactly the gentle type."
They definitely weren't related to Black Moon.
I simply wanted to know the reason they had appeared here and attacked me.
"M-money."
"Money?"
"Kkeuk, y-yes. Needed money. Saw a fancy car passing by...."
It wasn't a lie.
'Simple muggers?'
It wasn't strange.
As the Awakening Ritual accelerated, the number of those who had bloomed their traits had increased.
These hot-blooded delinquent punks who couldn't control their suddenly strengthened powers must have wanted to test them out.
And of course, if they could rob money and goods in the process, all the better.
It was the kind of thing idiots who suddenly gained power would do.
Smack!
The moment I heard the answer, I soccer-kicked his head.
Spinning round and round, he flew far away and lost consciousness.
It was right around then that I had finished dealing with the trio of idiot high schoolers.
Boom, kaboom!
Explosions heard from the city center a short distance away.
"..."
I looked toward the source of the sound.
Flames soared up, pushing back the darkness of dawn.
"Kyaaah!"
"S-save me!"
People's screams accompanied the conflagration.
"The apocalypse...."
That hell had drawn right up to my nose.
*
[This is an emergency breaking report. The scene of assailants raiding a department store this dawn and looting valuables.]
[This is footage captured on CCTV. A group of middle school students assaulting an adult male. Movements like something out of a wuxia novel....]
[Assault incidents are ceaseless. Citizens are expressing their dissatisfaction with the violence and disputes occurring everywhere....]
Breaking news delivered beyond the TV screen.
No matter which channel I turned to, breaking news continued to pour out.
"A veritable hell."
Chairman Kang turned off the TV with the remote and spoke.
"Is this the apocalypse you spoke of?"
"Of course not."
This man, he takes the apocalypse far too lightly.
"This is merely a precursor."
"...This is only a precursor?"
"Yes. And hell? At this level, it's not hell, but heaven."
"It seems this apocalypse far exceeds my expectations."
"Indeed. That's precisely why I'm running around with sweat pouring from the soles of my feet."
"I see."
He had seemed slightly surprised at first, but soon maintained a composed expression.
Truly, the iron-blooded tiger.
No matter how much I thought about it, curing Chairman Kang's dementia seemed like a divine move.
"To think this would truly become reality."
"Indeed. I thought it was nonsense at first, too."
"...Apocalypse...."
"..."
It wasn't just me and Chairman Kang here.
Seong Yeil, Han Yeongung, William, and Jeong Dohwan.
They were seated together—those who would become powerhouses counted among humanity's strongest in the near future.
They had all been ordinary people until recently, with the exception of Jeong Dohwan, but now they had bloomed their traits.
'Saintess, Sword King, Fist King, and the Guide of Death.'
Some were traits that had already proven their strength by entering the Ten Exalted.
'If they had survived until the very end, the rest likely had the potential to enter the Ten Exalted as well.'
The same went for those who hadn't entered the Ten Exalted.
They might not be able to display such great power right this moment, but as they continued to evolve, they would grow into beings of great assistance in the future.
"However...."
Jeong Dohwan, the elder who had been keeping silent, opened his mouth.
"...What is the reason you gathered us here?"
It wasn't just the old man's curiosity.
They must all be wondering why they had assembled due to the sudden summons.
"As you have seen, those who have bloomed their traits will begin appearing one after another."
One could guess as much just from watching the news that had been playing moments ago.
"Then what will happen?"
"Chaos will ensue."
As expected of Chairman Kang.
A man of insight, he was accurately reading the near future.
"Yes. A chaos greater than you imagine will arrive. A terrible chaos where those with uncontrollable powers topple the existing social order and commit all manner of crimes."
"...Must it necessarily turn into such a bad situation? Surely there are people with good intentions as well...."
Despite taking a beating from a cult, she still seemed to harbor hope.
Really, just like a naive young lady.
"Of course, there will be those with good intentions. But they will be a minority. The chaos that shakes the existing social order is an established fact."
It wasn't simply because I held a belief in the innate evil of humanity, a misanthropy rooted in the theory of original sin.
'It was the same before the regression.'
I had already experienced it.
Moreover, if that degree of chaos had arrived during the sporadic precursors, what need was there to even mention now, when an unexpected acceleration of precursors was unfolding?
Furthermore.
'Black Moon. These madmen will play their part too.'
It was as clear as day that a great chaos unlike anything experienced before the regression would arrive.
"Then, a question here."
I swept my gaze over everyone in the room, including Chairman Kang.
"What must be done to prevent that chaos as much as possible?"
To that question.
"..."
A brief silence fell.
"Perhaps...."
And the first to speak was Chairman Kang.
"...We would need a braking mechanism to stop a car without brakes—something to establish the center."
"Correct!"
To draw an analogy for the current situation of the people called Awakened, it was like giving monstrous strength to a three-year-old child who knew nothing.
What did that mean?
It meant they were intoxicated by a power they couldn't control themselves, and there was no telling what they would do.
Then what had to be done?
'We had to teach them how to properly use their strength through discipline.'
And the very people here were those who would become the caretakers for that discipline.
"Therefore, I will create an organization that will serve as the center of order—the braking device for those who know no control."
I briefly fixed my gaze on William.
'Yes, just as you once did.'
He had raised The White, a force to overcome the apocalypse, not for personal greed or selfish desire.
Though he had been unable to overcome the wall of the Five Great Phases and had to abandon that cause.
'This time is different.'
I will not repeat the same failure.
I shall inherit that will, that great cause.
"The White. It is the new name that will put an end to the chaos to come."
It was the establishment of an organization to impose order upon the impending great chaos, and to stand against Black Moon, which had already formed a massive power.