Clank. Clank.

Dongsoo Choi slowly approached Kimin Kim who was on the floor.

“Ugh…”

Kimin Kim tried to escape while he was tied to the chair and fell on the floor. However, he was only able to wiggle due to the repetitive torture. Hayeong Choi only healed his wounds, not his energy.

Dongsoo Choi squatted down next to Kimin Kim.

“What the hell are you?”

“Kruk…”

“Where on earth does your mental strength come from? I haven’t seen someone like you, so I’m just curious.”

“Ki..ll…”

“You want me to kill you? Finally?”

“…I..will..kill you…”

Dongsoo Choi stopped smiling and giggled like he saw something ridiculous.

“Don’t say something useless like that. Just answer my question.”

Cough. Cough

There was no answer — only the sound of bloody coughs re-echoed.

“Well… I wasn’t expecting your answer.”

Dongsoo Choi licked his chops.

“So why did you get caught by our recruiter? Don’t you know that you are not supposed to walk outside carelessly when you have that kind of skill?”

‘I was very careful, you motherfuckers!’

Kimin Kim shouted inside.

He didn’t want to stand out as much as possible, so he only did a night shift part-time job. He had to do something that required strength because of his horrible face with the burn scar. He couldn’t even dream about an ordinary part-time job.

The answer he came to after he reviewed many options was loading and stacking trucks. Still, he didn’t want to be seen, so he wore a mask while doing the tough work.

However, Kimin Kim’s efforts couldn’t beat coincidence.

‘Why the hell would a detecting skill user come to the loading and stacking? He has nothing to do!’

“By the way, the chairman has such a similar taste to me. I agree with him that he wants to destroy something he can’t have.”

Dongsoo Choi nodded his head for a while, then looked at Kimin Kim again.

“What should you do… If you have no power, you will suffer. Hey, you refused the one million dollar offer. Why didn’t you just take it? Then, you could’ve lived for about a year.”

Kimin Kim’s eyes glinted angrily.

“You don’t know how to thank others. You should be at least wise if you don’t have any power.”

Dongsoo Choi saw his glinting eyes and giggled.

He was searching for something in his pocket and then took out a stick. When he pressed a button on it, a shiny awl popped up with a click.

There was a knife blade placed oddly on the side of the awl. It seemed like a specially-ordered weapon.

After he showed the popping up awl to Kimin Kim, he put it back inside the stick again, and then he put the stick right in front of Kimin Kim’s eye.

Click!!

“Erk!!…..?!”

Kimin Kim shut his eyes tight and then almost passed out when he opened them slightly. There was a very strong light than a tolerable flashlight coming out from the stick. Dongsoo Choi laughed for a while and then opened his mouth.

“My specially ordered flashlight. Surprised? This doesn’t look like it, though, I put this and that inside since this stick is for emergencies. I don’t show it to anyone, but you are about to die, so… Well, playtime is over. Let’s finish this.”

Mmph! 

Kimin Kim tried his best to wriggle. 

“Hey, you…”

Dongsoo Choi grabbed Kimin’s head tight and aimed it with the awl.

At that moment.

Kieeeeeaaaaaaaaa-

“What…?”

The space in the room started screaming and was getting cut in a ring. Sparks flew from the metal clashing against each other in the cutting space.

Dongsoo Choi’s eyes looked nervous. He knew this skill user. There was only one reason for a skill user on this scale to come here at this time.

‘Saehun Choi, the space ruler…. The fact that the chairman had this man was found out.’

‘I heard Saehun Choi is slow with information. It means there will be others who let him know about this. He is not coming by himself for sure. Maybe he’s coming with other [rulers].’

He swallowed his spit.

‘Should I kill him quickly right now and just say it’s too late?’

However, his hand wasn’t moving. Dongsoo Choi tried to think fast.

‘I’m not the only one who’ll be in danger if I meet [the rulers] after I kill him. It’s going to affect at least the chairman. For now… I should keep him alive.’

Space, which was torn perfectly in a circle, vomited people outside one by one while Dongsoo Choi hid his awl in the stick and put it back into his pocket. 

“Yo, look at this! Fucking Dongsoo!”

The one who came out first from the space was a guy wearing short pants and a Hawaiian shirt with slicked-back hair. He took off his sunglasses and talked delightedly.

“Mr. Sangki Baek… It’s been a long time.”

Dongsoo Choi bowed politely.

“Yea, is Daehong still alive and well?”

“…Yes. He is good.”

The slicked-back hair man grinned and approached them.

“What. You don’t like me calling your chairman Daehong?”

“No, sir.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Yea. If you don’t like it… then, you know. You are always welcome to fight.”

“No, sir.”

“Ok. And relax your fucking eyes.”

“Ok, sir.”

The room was full of people in an instant since the room wasn’t that big. The torn space finished its job and disappeared.

“Yuck, it stinks.”

A cold beauty with a look of half venom and half nerveless, stayed far away, scrunched her nose, and made a wry face.

A lean short-haired beauty stood next to Kimin Kim and stared at him.

“It’s good. This guy looks healthier than we thought.”

“Looks like he’s been healed.”

A guy who looked very rock-solid answered Sera Lee.

“Heal? Did they have to?” a skinny pale guy asked. The rock-solid guy shrugged his shoulders.

Clap! Clap!

The slicked-back hair guy, Sangki Beak, clapped twice due to the noisy mood.

“Ok, ok. I’m going to take up the main subject since this place is too small. Fucking Dongsoo. If you had something good like this, you would’ve told me first. It looks like you did everything you could, so we can take it now, right?”

His tone showed that he didn’t care at all. Dongsoo Choi hesitated a little bit and gnashed his teeth.

“I’m sorry, but I have no authority. You should talk to the chairm-”

Pow. Thud!

The moment Sangki Beak’s hand became dim for a second, Dongsoo Choi flew back to the wall and hit it. He seemed to pass out since he drooped on the floor.

Roll. Roll.

The awl stick rolled out from Dongsoo Choi after he got hit by the wall and fell. It looked just like a simple stick since the awl was hidden inside, so no one cared.

‘Please… Come to me!!’ 

The only one who cared, Kimin Kim, prayed with all his might. And as he wished, the awl stick was sucked into his hand magically.

‘Got it!! Now, I need a chance..’

“How dare this goddamn asshole answer back!”

“Hey, let’s leave quickly since we got what we wanted. This place stinks too much.”

“Ok, ok. Saehun, open the portal! Quick! Hyeonjung said she wants to leave now.”

Sangki Beak giggled and ordered Saehun Choi after Hyeonjung Woo who couldn’t take her hand away from her nose.

“Sangki Beak. Didn’t I tell you several times not to talk to me that way?”

Skinny pale guy, Saehun Choi, had no facial expression.

Sangki Beak hardened his face.

“Hey, hey. Let’s suppress it a little bit. Just a little bit for each other.”

When the mood became intimidating, the short-haired Sera Lee interrupted and tried to smile.

She needed Kimin Kim. 

“You shouldn’t say that, Sera. Sangki Beak should do it.”

However, Saehun Choi wasn’t moving with his arms folded.

Sangki Beak’s face got veiny.

“Saehun. Let’s go. None of us has enough time including you and me. You know his tone is always like that.”

The rock-solid guy, Sungkyu Kim, looked at Saehun Choi quietly. Saehun Choi caught a glimpse of Sangki Beak with a dissatisfied face and nodded, then put his finger in the air.

Kieaaaaa-

Space screamed again.

“Wait.”

Sangki Beak opened his mouth, but Saehun Choi didn’t stop his finger.

“Fuck. Hey. I said stop. Don’t you hear me?”

Sangki Beak approached Saehun Choi, but only Saehun’s eyebrows wriggled. He just cut through the space without any facial expression.

Sungkyu Kim grabbed Sangki Beak from behind quickly.

“Let’s talk when we get there. Not here. We have enough time to talk there.”

“No. First, I need to beat up this motherfucker. I’m going to make sure to rank today.”

“You crazy…”

The moment Sungkyu Kim’s face became helpless, Sangki Beak spun his shoulders a few times and then disappeared. At the same time, he showed up behind Saehun Choi and swung his fist.

Bang-

Sangki Beak’s fist stopped in the air with an explosion sound.

“Move your magical barrier, bitch, if you don’t want to die.”

Sangki Beak saw the subtle twisted space between his fist and Saehun Choi and then growled. However, Saehun Choi didn’t care about Sangki Beak at all and finished the portal.

“Go in first.”

“…What?”

Sangki Beak looked at Saehun Choi with absurd eyes because of Saehun’s emotionless tone that sounded like he did not care about what Sangki did to him.

“I said go in first. You need to calm down a little bit.”

“…”

“That’s Saehun Choi. So generous.”

Sangki Beak left the impressed Sungkyu Kim behind and thought about it.

‘What is this? This bitch is not someone who’s going to talk to me like that. Even I haven’t seen him for 6 months.’

‘Is there any possibility he’s going to close the portal after I go in first?’

‘Or… By any chance, is it?’

Sangki Beak was convinced after seeing the portal that was quite different from the one he saw when they came into the room.

‘He connected the destination to somewhere else. This motherfucker..’

Sangki Beak came up with a fun idea and grinned.

‘Yeah, actually I didn’t need the illness cure skill. I just came together because I was annoyed that the other fuckers were sharing something good without me. Fuck you, Saehun Choi.’

“Hahaha. Yea, you’re right, Saehun Choi!!! You are such a generous person! I need to cool down my head!”

People looked at Sangki Beak oddly who was laughing so loud all of a sudden. What on earth was he on?

“By the way, if you close the portal after I go in first, I will be sad, right? So… I will throw this one first!”

“W…. Wait…?!”

Sangki Beak made an evil smile at Kimin Kim who cut the rope, hid the awl, and pretended to be tied. Then, he grabbed Kimin Kim and threw him into the portal even before Saehun Choi picked up his finger.

“Ha… That crazy bitch.”

Saehun Choi scratched the back of his head like he was in trouble while Sangki Beak was holding his stomach and laughing.

“Why? Aren’t we supposed to follow that guy now?”

“….”

Saehun Choi ignored Sungkyu Kim’s question, shook his fingers a few times, and got rid of the portal.

“Mr. Saehun! Where did you connect the portal?”

“…A beach. To let him cool down his head.”

‘Bullshit… He meant he almost put me into the ocean. I forgot that this bitch was fucking crazy… How come there isn’t a normal person here?”

Short-haired Sera Lee wrinkled her face and grabbed the back of her neck after Saehun’s answer.

“Can you bring it back?”

“…”

“You think he can?”

Sangki Beak answered Hyeonjeong Woo’s question instead of Saehun Choi and cried while laughing.

***

Kimin Kim didn’t understand what was going on.

Inside the dark ocean without any light after being thrown–

“Ugh, gruggg…”

He tried to hold his breath, but he couldn’t even do it for a minute.

Kimin Kim struggled and then fainted.

Gulp.

Then, something huge swallowed Kimin Kim who was sinking.