novelraw Chapter 115 : I Will Show You My Rules
Chapter 115 : I Will Show You My Rules
Chapter 115: I Will Show You My Rules
There was no hesitation in Zhang Wei’s dagger.
Slash-!
The dull sound of flesh and bone being severed swallowed even the crackling of the burning torch.
The horrific scream that burst from Lee Mun-chung’s mouth turned into a hollow groan the moment his two severed fingers fell onto the dirt ground.
The nauseating stench of blood spread through the cold night air.
I watched the scene with a hardened expression. I felt no joy of victory whatsoever.
That was because the pain, as if a rib were piercing straight through me, was on the verge of paralyzing my reason.
Jin Tae-gang’s final kick had not been a simple blow. It was a heavy strike like a solid steel club, shattering bones and violently shaking my insides.
And in the confrontation that followed, Lee Mun-chung relentlessly dug into that wound.
Every time I inhaled, sharp fragments of broken bone seemed to stab into my lungs, and when I swallowed the blood pooling in my mouth, a fishy metallic taste surged back up.
‘I can’t collapse here.’
At that moment, Elder Jin Jung-san struck the ground with his cane and declared,
“The first and second matches of Three Battles, Two Victories go to Baek Min-woo. There’s no need to see more. This contest ends with Yang Sobo’s victory.”
End? What a joke. I forcibly straightened my staggering body.
I didn’t care about his declaration at all. My gaze was fixed solely on No Deok-su, who was trembling with humiliation.
This fight would only end when I ended it…….
“No, it’s not over yet.”
At my low voice, all eyes in the clearing turned back to me.
I spat the blood-mixed saliva onto the ground and stared straight at No Deok-su, the source of all this chaos.
“Is this what you call an honorable fight? If so, then now, I will show you my rules.”
Dragging my unsteady body, I walked back into the circle.
The traces left behind by the fallen Jin Tae-gang and the blood Lee Mun-chung had spilled moments ago squelched beneath my feet.
It didn’t matter. I had been the owner of this blood-soaked stage from the very beginning.
I crooked my finger toward those remaining in No Deok-su’s camp.
“Next. Who’s coming out?”
My eyes must have been gleaming like those of a wild beast.
“Or should I choose myself.”
In that instant, the air in the venue changed. The contempt and doubt directed at me vanished from their faces, replaced by a single, vivid thought that this guy was insane.
‘Yes, look at me like that.’
No Deok-su’s face was dyed not just with anger, but with shock.
It was understandable. After Jin Tae-gang, even his greatest right-hand man, Lee Mun-chung, had been defeated despite resorting to cowardly tactics.
The desperate shout he had cried out—‘Lee Mun-chung! Finish it!’—was practically an admission that Lee Mun-chung’s defeat meant his own defeat.
“Baek Min-woo!”
Yang Sobo’s urgent voice rang out. He probably meant there was no need to push things further when victory was already secured.
But he didn’t know. The one who had to become the protagonist of this stage, laid out by Yang Sobo and raised by Jin Jung-san, had to be me.
“I will fight all three. Just because it’s a consecutive victory match doesn’t mean there’s any reason not to have a third bout.”
It was sophistry. But here and now, no one could refute my words. My momentum, my gaze, overwhelmed all rules and common sense.
I took another step toward the seat of honor. A faint smile hung on my lips.
“No Deok-su, please send out your last man. Or…… will you come out yourself?”
At my provocative question, No Deok-su’s gaunt face twitched. In his eyes, there was no longer anger or shock—only pure killing intent.
“What are you all doing?”
Having lost his reason, he sprang up from his seat and shouted at his subordinates.
“You can’t even deal with that one bastard! All of you rush in and break his arms and legs!”
It was the worst possible move, shattering the rules of Three Battles, Two Victories with his own hands. A miserable last struggle of a loser, turning an honor-staked duel into a muddy brawl.
‘So this is how it ends up.’
I curled my lips into a bitter smile at No Deok-su, who was moving exactly as I had led him to.
“What are you waiting for! Get out there right now!”
At No Deok-su’s order, the Incheon side’s men hesitated.
Intervening in the duel in front of the elders and other leaders was a clear taboo.
“Go! Kill that bastard!”
At No Deok-su’s second roar, his core subordinates—over a dozen of them—finally charged into the circle with shouts.
It was the moment the rules collapsed and the stage turned into utter chaos. Among the Chinese community of Incheon, only those who had chosen to share No Deok-su’s fate moved.
“Deok-su! Have you lost your mind?!”
Jin Jung-san rose from his seat in shock, but it was already too late. Their bloodshot eyes were fixed solely on me.
“Right. Honor, my ass. This is your true nature.”
I burst out laughing, as if I had been waiting for this.
Rather than a tedious one-on-one probing match, I much preferred this kind of muddy brawl.
“My lord.”
Zhang Wei, who had been standing behind Yang Sobo, called out briefly as if asking for permission. Instead of answering, Yang Sobo simply lifted his teacup and savored its fragrance. That was tacit consent.
With that approval, Zhang Wei stepped down from the seat of honor and took his place behind me. Then Lee Cheong-ho also stood behind me. The positioning itself was an acknowledgment that I was the protagonist of this fight.
Those standing before the three of us were even holding weapons in their hands. Wooden clubs, steel pipes. One of them even carried an axe.
The one who charged first was a man with a massive build. He raised a steel pipe high over his head and brought it straight down on me.
A foolish bastard. An attack from someone who relies on nothing but brute strength is as simple as it gets.
I let the attack slide off by twisting my body just slightly. The moment the steel pipe grazed my shoulder and stabbed into the ground, I slipped under his armpit and drove my elbow straight into his solar plexus.
“Keugh!”
With a suffocated sound, the giant body collapsed forward. At the same time, two more came at me from both sides in a coordinated attack.
But before they could even reach me, a massive shadow swallowed them whole.
Boom-!
It was Zhang Wei. With a single heavy punch like a crashing boulder, he crushed the right one’s jaw, then used the recoil to spin his body and smash his elbow into the left one’s temple.
Movements without a single wasted motion. His martial prowess, drawing maximum destructive power from minimal action, was overwhelming in every sense.
“Looks like your skills haven’t rusted.”
“Spare me the nonsense.”
As he curtly shot down my joke, Lee Cheong-ho had already slipped into the enemy ranks like a snake.
He avoided their punches and kicks by a paper-thin margin, and with the dagger in his hand, he targeted nothing but their tendons and vital points with absolute precision.
They collapsed without even managing to scream. His movements resembled a meticulous dance choreographed solely for killing.
The situation reversed in an instant. Numerically, we were at a disadvantage, but they had already lost all will to fight. They had realized that what they were facing wasn’t human beings, but disasters themselves—each in a different form.
Some staggered backward in terror, some tried to flee using their comrades as shields, and some, having lost their sanity, screamed and rushed at us wildly.
I no longer remained on the defensive. Instead, I plunged straight into their center and brought down the most dangerous ones first, one by one. The pain surging from my broken ribs only made me more exhilarated.
“Keugh!”
When the last one collapsed with a scream, the clearing was filled with nothing but groans of agony.
No Deok-su looked back and forth between his subordinates sprawled in ruins and the three of us standing at the center, soaked in blood. His face had gone deathly pale.
He must have realized that his final card had amounted to nothing, and that he had dug his own grave.
I slowly approached him. The elders, the other leaders, even Yang Sobo—all watched my actions in silence.
Bringing this asura-like chaos to a complete close. That role belonged to me alone.
I grabbed the collar of the trembling No Deok-su.
“Is this…… the honor you were talking about?”
My icy voice echoed across the clearing, where blood had pooled. I leaned in and whispered into his ear like a snake.
“Go on, tell me. Are those obsolete rules and that so-called honor you tried to protect protecting you right now?”
No Deok-su couldn’t answer in the end. I dragged him along and threw him like a bug at the feet of Jin Jung-san, who was seated at the seat of honor.
“I ask the elders.”
I bowed deeply, showing proper respect.
“In a Three Battles, Two Victories match staked on honor, how should one punish a man who broke the rules, used cowardly tactics, and still lost?”
My question became a blade testing not No Deok-su, but the elders themselves. After a long silence, Jin Jung-san opened his mouth heavily.
“One who breaks the rules is no longer our brother.”
His gaze turned toward Yang Sobo.
“Yang Sobo. Pass judgment yourself.”
The decision was handed to Yang Sobo. As if he had been waiting, he set down his teacup and rose from his seat.
“No Deok-su, you are removed from the position of leader of the Chinese community of Incheon. You will surrender everything you possess to the organization and leave this land. Never think of returning.”
At that moment, the light vanished from No Deok-su’s eyes. Stripped of his position and exiled. A punishment worse than death.
Backed by the elders’ support, Yang Sobo’s judgment was absolute. This was the law of the Chinese community.
I stepped away from the fallen No Deok-su and looked around at the remaining leaders.
“I ask everyone present here. Do you wish to live? Or do you wish to die disgracefully like that old man?”
No one could answer. That silence itself was their answer. Wearing a satisfied smile, I looked at Yang Sobo.
“Please wrap things up now, sir.”
At that moment, the tension that had been crushing my entire body finally snapped.
At the same time, excruciating pain began to surge up from my side where Jin Tae-gang had struck me.
It wasn’t simple pain. It was an agony as if dozens of sharp blades were tearing through every nerve in my body. My vision swayed dizzyingly, and the world began to spin.
‘Pull yourself together……. It’s not over yet.’
If I collapsed here, everything I had shown so far would be reduced to nothing but bluster. I clenched my teeth. I was the victor of this asura. I couldn’t afford to look as pitiful as a loser.
Rejecting anyone’s support, I began to make my way back to my seat, one heavy step at a time.
One step. Pain surged from the soles of my feet all the way to the top of my head.
Another step. The shadows of the flickering torches opened their maws as if they might swallow me whole at any moment.
‘This level of pain is…… nothing.’
All the surrounding sounds faded away. When I finally reached the chair I had been sitting in, I could no longer hold on and staggered.
My vision went dark, and my body pitched forward.
‘Damn it……. Is this as far as I go.’
Just as my consciousness was about to cut out, a single strong hand firmly grabbed my arm. It was Yang Sobo.
With his support, I barely managed to sink back into my seat.
Only when I leaned back into the chair with a dull thud did I finally manage to draw rough, ragged breaths from deep within my lungs.
“You overdid it.”
Yang Sobo’s low voice echoed by my ear. I didn’t even have the strength to answer and only gave a slight nod.