Casino Commotion (4)
Having felt the stark difference in power, Baek Jinwoo had nothing to hold him back.
He closed the distance with the hulking boss and threw a punch.
This time, he did not hold back his strength.
'The boss' crimes are worse, after all.'
Those in higher positions naturally bear greater responsibility!
Fwhaaaash!
The moment he planted his front foot, the boss clenched his lips tight at the sight of the rising punch coming toward him.
At the same time, he narrowed his eyes and focused.
That one punch is really that strong?
'No way.'
He might not have had the edge in summoner battles, but in hand-to-hand combat, he had never met his equal.
The boss was actually a former MMA pro, and he had made quite a name for himself on the streets too. He steeled himself once more.
'I can't lose to some sloppy punch that's just strong!'
Tap!
The boss instinctively stepped backward and leaned his upper body away.
Every muscle in his body tensed taut, and Baek Jinwoo's fist barely brushed past the tip of his nose.
'I dodged it!'
For the first time, he had evaded Baek Jinwoo's punch.
'That was nothing.'
The hulking boss did not close his eyes.
Closing your eyes in a fight was what amateurs did!
Tracking Baek Jinwoo's passing fist all the way through, he instinctively threw a right hook.
An unfair right hand.
If this counter landed on the jaw, then one hundred times out of one hundred, the target would lose consciousness and drop.
Fwhaaaash!
But his punch never reached Baek Jinwoo's jaw.
Baek Jinwoo simply avoided it by standing in place and tilting his head slightly.
'What?'
The boss was horrified.
Did that even make sense?
It was not weaving, nor was it ducking…..
He had not even stepped, and yet he dodged like that?
No matter how elite a fighter someone was, dodging like that made no sense.
'That's beyond prediction. He's actually seeing it and dodging it with his eyes·····.'
But the hulking boss was also a seasoned criminal in this world.
His panic lasted only a moment!
Fwhaaaash!
Using the recoil from his missed right hand, he fired a left hook this time.
Its target was Baek Jinwoo's abdomen!
'You may have dodged the jaw, but how are you going to avoid the stomach without stepping?'
The torso covered a wide area.
No matter how good he was, there was no way he could dodge this atta—
'Huh?'
The boss's eyes flew wide open.
'He disappeared?'
The target that had clearly been right in front of him had vanished from sight!
No, how was that even possible?!
He had already thrown the punch, and just as he frantically tried to roll his eyes to find him—
Fwhaaaash!
An attack from an angle he could not even identify dug up under his chin.
'The sole of a foot?'
The boss instinctively tucked his chin in.
Crack!
Baek Jinwoo's foot struck the boss squarely in the nose and kicked upward.
With the sound of fragile bone breaking, the boss' body lifted clean off the ground into the air!
'This is insane.'
He got hit by this kind of absurd attack?
Only one thought ran through the boss' head as it snapped back.
'This is a monster.'
A ridiculous kind of talent!
That power and precision completely ignored weight classes.
At this level, he would dominate even a major fighting stage as an immortal war god.
Thud!
In the end, the hulking boss crashed backward, and the immense pain surging through his nose forced a scream out of him.
"Ghk, gyaaaagh!"
Pressing both hands hard against his nose, he looked at Baek Jinwoo, who still had not lowered his raised leg.
Then he froze in shock.
Because Baek Jinwoo's eyes, staring down at him, had sunk into a terrifying coldness.
'F-fuck.'
And then he saw it again.
Baek Jinwoo's foot falling toward his nose one more time.
'Goddammit.'
Crack!
That was the hulking boss' last conscious thought.
"Boss down too. Who's next?"
After crushing the boss in that brief span of time, Baek Jinwoo swept his gaze around.
Guild members and a few terrorists were still fighting.
'Oh?'
Someone caught his eye.
'Song Yeonhee?'
She was not overpowering some giant brute, but with that tiny frame, she kicked out, dodged punches, and landed strikes.
The way she moved was so dazzling and exquisite...
'A special constitution isn't called that for nothing.'
Heavenly Heart Body, and Boundless Physique.
Those were not constitutions that would ever lose easily in a fight.
"You little bitch!"
When his attacks failed to land, the enraged terrorist spread both arms wide like a bear and charged madly.
And Song Yeonhee seized that moment, leaping up and twisting her body sideways.
Whirl!
Then a spin.
A 540-degree kick slammed perfectly into his jaw.
The terrorist lost consciousness from the surreal kick and collapsed on the spot!
"Woooooooah!"
"No way!"
"What are those Koreans?!"
It was not just Song Yeonhee.
The guild members, who had long trained their bodies and breathing methods through HunGyo's routines, could clearly see the enemy's attacks.
Their own attacks might have been clumsy, but they were not losing to those hulking men.
And on top of that—
Tap!
With Baek Jinwoo rejoining the fight, the terrorists' morale had no choice but to plummet.
Already more than half….. nearly 70% of them were sprawled on the floor, either unconscious or crying out in pain.
This was hopeless.
There was no longer any point in fighting, and the terror attack was all but a failure.
In the end—
"…We surrender!"
Someone dropped to his knees and raised his hands.
Was that the trigger?
"W-we're sorry!"
"Please, just spare us!"
Everyone began surrendering of their own accord, and cheers erupted from the hostages.
"Wow..."
Rachel, who had watched the entire scene unfold, could not close her mouth.
No sane person could believe the chain of events happening before her eyes.
"How is this even possible...?"
Those South Koreans.
At a glance, the momentum of those national representative players, who so clearly looked to have been trained by God Ji-nu, was completely different from before.
'He raised them that much in such a short amount of time?'
Xenos and Sugoi stood there in silence, and even Moscowman was frozen stiff.
Baekcheon gramps cheering alongside the hostages.
All of it reflected exactly how Rachel felt in the face of this absurd situation.
'But still.'
There was something else that made no sense!
Weren't these people players?
Players were supposed to be good at handling summons….. Why were their combat skills like this?
At this point, they looked less like world league competitors and more like people preparing for a fighting tournament.
'Anyway.'
There was one thing that was certain.
'Baek Jinwoo really is a genius.'
And not just any genius, but the kind other people could never comprehend.
Maybe even Einstein or von Neumann would fall into despair if they saw Baek Jinwoo.
'It was a good thing I formed an alliance with him.'
Rachel swallowed dryly.
Of course, she was still confident in player-versus-player combat, but... with senses and control like that, it would only take an instant for him to catch up.
'We absolutely have to maintain the best possible relationship with South Korea.'
It was the moment the line she had maintained until now became even more certain.
Baek Jinwoo was seriously unbelievable.
With the hulk of a boss and all the terrorists' hoods removed, they began some kind of interrogation with a woman named Yoo Jia.
But the method was rather brutal.
Thud!
Baek Jinwoo's finger struck a terrorist's joint.
"Ghk, gyaaaagh!"
"Hmm, not here?"
Watching as if he were observing an experiment, he muttered again.
"Next."
Then the terrorist, tears streaming down his face, staggered to the back, and the next target came forward.
And once again—
Crack!
"Gyaaaaaagh!"
Baek Jinwoo was currently learning HunGyo's Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing technique.
Normally, since HunGyo used it, he had thought there was no need for him to learn it himself….. But he figured that if there ever came a Day of Peace, it might not be a bad idea to learn it too.
"Hmm, this is definitely the right spot."
He had clearly pinpointed the exact location HunGyo had taught him.
But though the bones broke, the muscles and tendons did not twist and torment them the way they were supposed to.
—My lord.
HunGyo approached and whispered.
—The acupoint location is correct. You simply lack enough inner power.
"Ah, really?"
Did he need to train the breathing method more?
—A certain level of inner power must flow into that acupoint for it to activate.
".....I see, hmm. Then what do I do? I need to dig out who's behind these bastards….."
The terrorists were tough.
No matter how much they were beaten, they only muttered like fanatics that they could never reveal that much...
From Baek Jinwoo's perspective, one minute of Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing would have been enough to make them spill everything.
'If someone refuses to talk, that just means the pain is still far too lacking.'
That had always been Baek Jinwoo's belief.
But well.
Since he apparently could not use Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing right now, he had no choice but to do this another way.
"Ms. Jia."
"Yes."
Two Mind-Reading Eagles were perched on Yoo Jia's shoulders.
Exactly two chances.
These creatures were excellent at distinguishing truth from lies.
"Listen up."
Baek Jinwoo looked at the terrorists kneeling with their hands bound.
No matter how ruthless they were, surely not every one of them was loyal to the organization.
With the boss and their comrades still awake, eyes open and ears listening, that had to be the case.
"Everyone close your eyes."
In the end, Baek Jinwoo decided to use the method teachers often used back in school.
"Shut them tight. If any of you tries to peek even a little, you'll all get jumped for ten minutes."
Around them, players known for being strong were glaring sharply as they prowled back and forth, and several others were searching for a way out through the elevator shaft that Xenos had collapsed under his control.
"Anyone who confesses gets to live. If you want to talk, quietly raise your hand."
They were already exhausted.
Psychologically, they had already lost, and they were full of despair at the thought that once they got out, they would be executed.
If tempted with sweet words, surely a few of them would crack.
"And just so you know, it's first come, first served."
Rustle, rustle!
The players loitering nearby deliberately made noise with their clothes.
A few terrorists, growing psychologically unstable, cautiously raised their hands.
Bingo.
They had taken the bait.
* * *
[London Casino terror attack, situation resolved! Relief as all hostages are safe!]
[Mastermind behind the terror attack identified as Muhammad Zahir Shah, leader of one of the Afghan Armed Groups!]
[
The situation that had shaken the whole world finally came to an end.
All the hostages were rescued safely, and the terrorists' punishment was handed over to the British central government.
The mastermind was a man named Zahir Shah, who led the Afghan tribe (Pashtuns).
Through this terror attack, he had planned to raise the level of his own country's players even further, then unify Afghanistan and Pakistan and, with their massive population, aim to turn them into a summoning superpower.
That population alone was roughly 300 million....
Using that vast number of player zones as a foundation, he had been aiming for a revival of Islam!
"Seriously, Muslims are always the problem."
"They do have a lot of extreme and violent tendencies."
"They act like they're the only ones with a religion, the only ones!"
"But even so, suppressing that many players isn't right!"
Naturally, the whole world was enraged.
Britain and its allied nations immediately dispatched troops and captured Zahir Shah, imposing the heavy penalty that the nation in question would be barred from league participation.
And that would not be all, as the whole world knew.
On the day the Day of Peace ended, the Pashtun armed groups would probably face a catastrophic end led by rankers from around the world.
"Honestly, there's never a quiet day. Seriously."
Baek Jinwoo and the guild members returned to the VIP hotel once more.
Flop!
Yoo Jia dropped onto the sofa in the suite room, which was over a hundred pyeong, and buried her head in her hands.
There were endless matters to deal with: compensation for suppressing the terror attack, league issues, the government, affiliated companies, and nonstop calls from family members.
There was an endless amount to do.
And the biggest problem of all—
"...Who on earth filmed this and spread it around?"
On the phone in her hand, a video was playing of Baek Jinwoo single-handedly tearing through countless terrorists.