The whole world was burning. It had met its demise at the hands of the Demon Lord, and Kang Yoon-Soo looked around at the scene that was so familiar to him.
‘This world met its demise as well. Now it’s time for me to die at the hands of the Demon Lord and regress.’
It was an undeniable truth that was more certain than anything else. Kang Yoon-Soo was standing alone atop a cliff high above the ground when a voice suddenly whispered in his ears.
[Child, this will be your final life.]
When he heard the voice, Kang Yoon-Soo’s shoulders shook as he suddenly came to realize something.
‘That’s right. This is my final chance. Why did I forget about that?’
‘I have to prepare for this one.’
The voice that spoke to him was familiar. It was the same voice that had spoken to him in the swamp where the Mudgems dwelled, and the same one that had spoken to him in the Hatar Mountains. It was that feminine voice that had warned him of an impending disaster.
[Save the world, and then save me. It’s time to bring an end to your long and arduous journey.]
“Who… are you…?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked, but the voice no longer replied. The blinding light enveloped him before completely engulfing him.
***
Kang Yoon-Soo opened his eyes, thinking, ‘Was it a dream?’
He looked around the dark surroundings and noticed that he was in a cage, with his body bound up in chains. ‘This must be the basement prison in the headquarters of the Black Tiger Clan.’
A huge warden stood in front of Kang Yoon-Soo from outside the cage, letting out a sinister laugh. He asked, “Are you up? You won’t believe how much I was looking forward to interrogating you. Heh.”
“We finally meet, Antoine,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.
“Huh? What did you say?” the warden asked in surprise.
“Don’t you remember me? Well, I guess I look different now. It’s me, Kilton. Your older brother, whom you got separated from in the slums of Rimahill,” Kang Yoon-Soo said in a soft, gentle voice.
“What are you talking about?! My brother was sold off as a slave when I was nine years old!” the warden shouted in a trembling voice.
“I’m alive. I changed how I looked and put on a fake wrist device to look like a Traveler so I could escape from my owner,” Kang Yoon-Soo continued in his fake tone.
“Don’t bullshit me! Why should I believe that’s even possible?!” Antoine shouted.
“Uncle Carlton was the only one in our family who had magician blood in him. I asked for his help to change how I look. You might have forgotten about me, but I haven’t forgotten you even for a moment. Antoine, I’m talking about the warm memories we had of ripping the guts out of cats and torturing that little bitch by ripping out her hair,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.
“N-no… It can’t be… Hyung[1]? Is it really you, hyung?” Antoine’s voice trembled. Kang Yoon-Soo nodded.
Antoine shook his head in shock and disbelief, but he urgently asked, “Then tell me our password! The password we shared when we were younger!”
“Our lifelong goal is to torture the Saintess, the Goddess, and the Princess at once,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.
“I-it’s real! You are my hyung!” Antoine exclaimed, hurriedly opening the prison doors. The huge warden bawled his eyes out as he ran toward Kang Yoon-Soo and screamed, “Hyung!”
Kwachik!
Kang Yoon-Soo hurriedly got up and headbutted Antoine, who collapsed on the floor with his eyes rolled back. He used his foot to take the key hanging on Antoine’s waist, then released himself from the chain wrapped around him.
“Your brother raped and tortured his master’s daughter as soon as he was bought, and he eventually died after getting stabbed,” he said.
He left the prison, finding his dimension bag and two swords hanging on the wall. He collected his things as he slowly walked through the corridor, thinking, ‘This is building C. The Black Tiger Clan locked me and Iris up in the same building, while Shaneth was in building A and Henrick was in building B.”
He planned to rescue Iris first on the way to rescue the others. Suddenly, he heard footsteps from the other side of the corridor. He quickly hid behind a wall as he drew the tattoo of the Black Tiger Clan on the back of his hand with the Body Crafting Kit, then quickly ran toward the incoming clan member and said, “One of the guys escaped.”
“What? Damn it! Is that true?” the vicious-looking clan member asked as he passed by Kang Yoon-Soo and headed for the prison.
“No,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, quickly slamming the hilt of his sword in the back of the man’s neck. The clan member collapsed to the ground after getting hit in a vital spot.
Heok!
Thud!
Kang Yoon-Soo met with four Black Tiger Clan members and knocked them all out using the same method. When he entered the prison where Iris was being held, he saw Iris standing in the middle surrounded by nine Black Tiger Clan members collapsed on the floor. She calmly said, “Oh, Kang Yoon-Soo.”
‘Was Iris this strong at this point in time?’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought. He asked in surprise, “What happened here?”
“I woke up to find them wanting to peek under my skirt. So I pulled the chains to resist and they ended up getting knocked out on the floor,” Iris said calmly.
The Black Tiger Clan members were at least Level 200, but to think that she had easily subdued these people? Kang Yoon-Soo was deep in thought for a moment before asking, “Do you still have the characteristics of the Mana Golem you absorbed?”
“Indeed. Everything is so light,” Iris said as she easily swung a heavy chain.
“Don’t eat any other hearts for now. That strength will come in very handy,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.
It was inevitable for Iris to possess monstrous strength, because the golem’s explosive power had been added to the doppelganger’s innate strength.
Iris looked sad to hear Kang Yoon-Soo’s words and complained, “Do not eat any more hearts? How could Kang Yoon-Soo say something so cruel as if it were nothing?”
“You can eat other things,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.
“Hmm… Then in return, could Kang Yoon-Soo prepare delicious foods for me?” Iris asked, greatly expectant.
“I don’t cook,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied coldly.
“You are really, really mean,” Iris said with a pout.
“…I’ll ask Shaneth to bake you an apple pie later,” Kang Yoon-Soo said, barely managing to calm down Iris whose eyes were welling up with tears.
The two left the prison cell and went out into the corridor. The Black Tiger Clan had renovated an abandoned prison and turned it into their headquarters, which was why the basement of their headquarters was wide and the way around it was complicated like a maze.
‘I can proceed with the plan faster if Iris’ absorbed trait is her monstrous strength,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought. He kicked down the door in front of him, and inside, three vicious-looking clan members were smoking cigars while playing cards.
“Who the hell are you guys?” one of the clan members asked.
“None of your business,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.
One of the clan members scoffed, but the hilt of a sword flew toward him and smacked him dead center in the forehead. The two remaining clan members pulled out their weapons, but they were easily subdued by Iris’ monstrous strength. After the pair easily subdued the three clan members, Kang Yoon-Soo pointed toward the ventilation fan and said, “Iris, pull it out.”
Iris easily pulled out the ventilation fan along with its metal frame using one hand. There was now enough space for one adult to crawl into it. She said with a nod, “I see that you plan to secretly infiltrate where they are holding Shaneth and Henrick through this vent.”
However, contrary to her expectations, Kang Yoon-Soo replied, “No.” He shouted loudly into the vent, “Come! Over here!”
Soon after, a loud thump reverberated from within the vent, and a man suddenly popped up covered in black oil sludge—it was Henrick.
“Aigoo. My back is killing me!” Henrick complained.
Iris stared at Henrick, her eyes filled with curiosity as she asked, “Why did you come out from there, Henrick?”
“I followed the usual scenario when the protagonist escapes from prison. After all, aren’t these vents made to be used by escapees during a prison break?” Henrick remarked with a smirk on his smudged-up face.
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“You would have been bound up in chains. How did you escape with the guard watching over you?” Iris asked, tilting her head.
“I removed my hand and wiggled it out of the chains, then secretly controlled my dolls to knock the guard out cold. But how the hell are you two together? Where’s Shaneth?” Henrick asked.
“She’ll soon join us,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied. He extended his right hand and said, “Summon Sally.”
A beautiful young girl appeared as a flame vortex spun in mid-air. However, the girl seemed upset, as her cheeks were puffed up for some reason.
“Papa! Sally is mad!” Sally complained.
“Why?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked in an uninterested tone.
“Acle is looking down on me!” Sally protested, expressing how angry she was. She continued, “He doesn’t play with Sally, and he always ignores me too! He looks down on me, and refuses to call me noona! Acle is a really bad dongsaeng! I hate him!”
“Take a look at this. Even spirits don’t get along well if they’re siblings,” Henrick said with a snicker.
Kang Yoon-Soo looked at Sally and said, “We don’t have time right now. Blow fire into the vent, as much as you possibly can.”
Sally pouted to express her discontent at Kang Yoon-Soo’s indifference, but she did as he commanded nevertheless without complaining. She transformed into her Salamander form and breathed her flames out.
Fwoooooo!
The flame rode the vent networks and spread all over the basement, and the sound of explosions followed soon after.
Booom! Booom!
“W-what? What are these explosions?” Henrick asked in surprise.
“A few of the rooms here are used as gas torture chambers,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.
“What? Then aren’t we in danger as well?” Henrick asked nervously.
“The basement will be engulfed in flames in a bit,” Kang Yoon-Soo said nonchalantly. Sure enough, the basement of the Black Tiger Clan’s headquarters was soon filled with smoke and flames.
“The gas chamber exploded! Head up right now if you want to live!”
The clan members were in disarray as they all rushed up the stairs. Suddenly, one of the pillars supporting the ceiling melted and collapsed.
Booom!
Their only escape route was now blocked by the collapsed pillar, and the Black Tiger Clan cursed in despair as their only escape route was now gone.
“Somebody do something!”
“We’ll all burn to death at this rate! Damn it!”
Kang Yoon-Soo walked through the panicking crowd, and a woman’s hand suddenly shot out from one of the doors.
“Phew!” Shaneth exclaimed.
“…Don’t you feel hot?” Henrick asked.
“Why are you asking that as if we’ve just met?” Shaneth replied with a grin, dusting off the ashes on her body.
Kang Yoon-Soo looked at his now complete party and said, “You all have a task to do.”
It was unusual for Kang Yoon-Soo to reveal his plans beforehand. The party looked at him with all seriousness, waiting for him to speak.
“The reason why we intentionally got kidnapped was to make contact with the leader of this clan, the Black Tiger Clan,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.
“Black Tiger Clan? Aren’t those the guys we pretended to be when we pulled one off at Sunset Glass? I wondered why there were so many thugs in this place with the Black Tiger tattoo,” Henrick said seriously.
Shaneth looked expectantly at Kang Yoon-Soo and asked, “So what do we have to do?”
“We’ll pull off a scam,” Kang Yoon-Soo said nonchalantly.
“…”
They were now used to Kang Yoon-Soo’s antics.
Shaneth let out a sigh as she asked, “Still, our goal is to get rid of this criminal clan, right?”
“No, we’ll cooperate with them,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.
“…!” Henrick’s face crumpled as he said angrily, “You crazy bastard. You caused such a ruckus and now you want to cooperate with them?”
“The leader of the Black Tiger Clan is a madman, so it’s alright,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied calmly.
“Ha! Then he must be the same kind as you?” Henrick retorted mockingly.
Kang Yoon-Soo pulled out several handkerchiefs from his backpack, and his party used them like masks to cover their faces. He then used the Body Crafting Kit to draw the tattoo of the Black Tiger Clan on the backs of their hands.
The flames raged on, but the Black Tiger Clan members still had not escaped from the basement.
“Since it’s come to this, let’s use corpses to make a way through!”
“Do you think blood can extinguish fire…?”
As expected of criminals, their way of thinking was too simple and ignorant.
Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly appeared and said, “Get out of the way.” He stretched out his right hand and muttered, “Summon Acle.”
A cold breeze blew as Acle suddenly appeared, and he grimaced as he openly showed his discontent. He complained, “Are you crazy? How can you think of summoning me in such a hot place like this?!”
“I’ll give you the Frozen Crown if you help me out,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.
“W-what did you say?” Acle said, unable to hide his surprise. The treasure of the Winterkill Ruin, the Frozen Crown, was definitely a treasure an Ice Spirit would desire. He repeated, “Y-you’ll give that crown to me…?”
“If you help me out,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.
“Hmph! I don’t like it, but I guess you do need my help!” Acle said haughtily as he crossed his arms. He then extended both of his hands and shouted, “Ice Storm!”
Cold air started to form around both of his hands as he whirled them around. The intense cold spread out and instantaneously extinguished the flames. Now, the trapped people could escape from the basement as soon as they jumped over the fallen pillar.
“Haha! The flames are gone!”
“We’re saved! You! I don’t know who you are, but thank you!”
The Black Tiger Clan members let out disgusting-looking smiles as they took turns one by one to thank Kang Yoon-Soo.
The arsonist who had started the fire suddenly turned into the savior who had extinguished the fire…
1. ’Hyung’ is what a boy would call his elder brother or a guy older than him. ☜