Chapter 121: Old Plans, New Goals
As Seo-jin pulled out of the hug, he forced his face flat and pretended he didn't feel Min burning two holes into his spine.
"Hiding from you? That's insane. What man in his right mind runs from you? I've just had a lot on my plate—realm hopping, wrangling subordinates. But I'm—"
"It sounds exhausting. Yu-na, hurry with your acquaintance. The Chairman expects a report."
Hye-jin's smile stayed soft. Her tone could've stripped paint.
"We finished early. Give me—"
"Apologies, young Mistress. The Chairman is waiting. If we delay, I'm afraid you'll have to bear the consequences by yourself."
Gregor locked up like hot metal seizing in water. Ivan Cho didn't raise his voice, but the weight in it was enough to cut Yu-na's breath short.
Ji-yoon lit a cigarette, blew smoke sideways, and snorted.
"Let her stay. Bitch hasn't gotten laid and she's in heat."
Seo-jin blinked but kept his mouth shut. This was the Woon Corporation's mess, not his.
"Not all of us spread our legs for anything with a pulse."
Yu-na slid a hand across Seo-jin's chest, fingers dragging slow.
"Some of us have standards."
Ji-yoon opened her mouth, but Yu-na hopped closer, pressing into him with a smug little shove.
"You'll have to forgive me. Work before pleasure. But now that I know you're alive—expect a visit, Wohan Seo-jin. I'm dying to hear what excuse you come up with."
Before he could breathe, she kissed him hard, then spun away. The guards hesitated, then followed.
"I can't wait! It's already been too long!"
She waved without looking back.
Ahead of the sisters, Ivan lifted a hand. A black portal tore open like a wound. The sisters stepped through one by one, then the guards.
Just before he entered, Ivan stopped.
And looked at Gregor.
"Do I know you?"
'Shit.'
Seo-jin felt every hair on his neck lock upright. He held his breath and waited for Gregor to answer.
"No. I don't think so."
Ivan's mask cracked. Calm melted straight into murder.
"Then keep your eyes down next time. Or I'll cut them out of your skull. Remember your orders, Dead Hands. Stay home. Stay alive."
He stepped through the portal without another word.
As the black void closed, Seo-jin felt something coil off Ivan's bloodlust, something familiar, but buried too deep to place. He pushed it aside.
He turned back just in time to duck Min's first punch.
"Yu-na?! Of all the women—you fuck the bone-witch? You brain-rotted idiot!"
She swung again, and again, each blow rattling the air. Gregor and a few men forced themselves between them. When Min saw Gregor holding steady, not exploding, she reined herself in.
If anyone should've snapped, it was him.
"Leave us. Now!"
Sick of the noise, Seo-jin snarled at the Dead Hands, voice raw.
"Fall back!"
They scattered without hesitation. Once the docks cleared, he turned to speak, but Gregor cut ahead.
"Do you know why?"
Seo-jin exhaled, sorted through the borrowed memories, then pointed straight at Min. He needed to straighten things out first.
"If you couldn't figure out from her own damn words that Seo-jin fucked her—not me—I should rethink trusting you with anything."
Her face went crimson. She opened her mouth—
—he stepped closer, armor sliding over him as his aura detonated like ground glass.
"And if you ever take a swing at me again out of spite, I'll carve you down so no man will recognize you as a woman. That isn't a threat. That's a promise."
Gregor almost intervened, but his system barked at him to stay out of it. He didn't know what the demon had done in his absence, but the gap was clear—he and Min had no shot now. Even Min knew it.
For the first time in a long time, she stepped back.
Not ideal. Not what he wanted. But enough. Push for an apology and she'd die before bowing; pride ran deep in some people, deeper than blood.
Seo-jin held her stare a moment longer, let his aura bleed out, then turned to Gregor.
"He wanted in with the Woons. His goal was Yu-na. She was supposed to open a door so he could reach her father."
Min strained like she might snap, but Gregor didn't flinch.
"Why?"
"To jump the dungeon ladder. Faster levels. Faster growth."
Min spoke through her teeth.
"For us? Or himself?"
Seo-jin let the question sit before answering, but he decided to tell the truth.
"You all—if he could. But if it failed, he planned to leave the Dead Hands and join the Woons."
The dock shuddered. Boards groaned, split, and spat splinters into the water. Gregor and Min both bristled, fury burning hot enough to blister the air.
"That two-faced—good he's already dead, or I'd kill him myself."
Gregor drew a long breath and let it burn out slow. The rage bled off him faster than Min expected. His eyes drifted toward the distant Woon tower, a black spike over the ruin.
"What happened with Seo-jin is past. His betrayal is benefit now. We use it."
Min scoffed.
"What benefit?"
Seo-jin answered before Gregor could.
"We've now got a way in. Risky, but it opens doors. I need time to drag everything back out of his memories, but this'll—wait."
He stopped mid-sentence and shut his eyes.
"What now? Remember another sister he fucked?"
"Quiet."
Gregor lifted a hand for silence. Min ignored him, but she bit her tongue long enough for Seo-jin's eyes to open again.
"That little shit… I swear, did either of you even know who he was? The crap he hid..."
He let the words hang on purpose. Gregor wasn't having it.
"You don't want Min to hit you, yet you poke her anyway. Talk."
'Think I've been around you too long.'
[It's fun. Don't apologize.]
Min's knuckles cracked as she balled her fists. Seo-jin gave in.
"One time he was in her bed, he checked some of her files. Found something—something big. Turns out he was digging into it when he fell into the rift."
Another flash of memory had hit him at the same time...Lynn's face. He added her to his mental list of things to do.
"There were notes from a ruined site. They talked about an underground structure built right after the Convergence started."
Min stomped hard enough to punch her heel through a dock plank.
"Fuck the buildup—spit it out."
Even Gregor's jaw twitched. Seo-jin grinned.
"A time capsule."
Both froze. Gregor's voice dropped.
"Impossible. If there was even a rumor of one, the Woons would tear the city to bedrock."
"Not with this one. The notes were in a file Yu-na hadn't reviewed. He deleted the page. Hid it clean. He couldn't stop bragging about it in his head."
Both humans reacted harder than he expected. Gregor most of all. But when his eyes closed and the memories rolled up from the back of his skull, Seo-jin understood why. Even the concept of a time capsule hit something deep in him.
"You humans are strange creatures. Clinging to your past like it matters. If it doesn't make you stronger, what's the point in preserving something?"
Min actually smiled, the first real one she'd shown since he arrived. Her fists balled, but the tremor was excitement, not anger.
"No shit you don't get it—"
She didn't even finish as she turned to Gregor....he turned to her. Both locked in on the same fever.
"The last one had a drive with a full library. Sold for over a billion points."
"Hear about the one with paintings? Whole freelands town bought citizenship off that haul."
"I call any Tubberware!"
"Tubberware? Why would—? Whatever. Any food in there is mine. One was full of spices and canned goods."
Seo-jin stared at both of them.
'You see this? I'm being ignored.'
[One second. Looking up this Tubberware.]
He frowned, cleared his throat, stepped in.
"No one's calling anything. We sell whatever—"
Both snapped their heads toward him. Just their heads. Dead eyes. Murder sharp.
"Tubberware is mine."
"Food is mine."
Of all the things humans cared about, he hadn't expected those to be the prizes they'd die for. Odds of finding either were almost zero. Odds of the capsule existing at all were probably lower.
"Fine. The tubber thing and any food stay with you two. But we have to find it first."
He glanced at the sun, then toward the main warehouse, already walking.
"We move after dark. Three of us is enough. No one else hears about this. Not even if we find it."
"No shit."
They reached the warehouse door. A thought hit him like a hook.
"Oh—what was that Ivan bastard talking about? What orders?"
Inside, the metal door clanged shut behind them as Gregor explained. How the Woon Corporation had issued a city-wide chokehold: no one leaves their turf, no one starts anything, and any gang to break the rule gets culled. No violence in Shatterbay.
A shout cracked like thunder as the warehouse door blew open from a surge of bloodlight.
"FUCK THAT!"
----
Sitting at the center of the head table, Seo-jin barely tasted the food. The noise rolled around him...drinking, shoving, bragging, fists slamming tables, but it all slid off him. His mind gnawed the same problem raw, locked on it like a dog chewing a rope to threads. How to expand his forces while the city was on lock down.
"You called for a feast, least you could do is enjoy it."
A cold bottle pressed into his palm. He recognized the hands before the voice. Thin, wrinkled, trembling from age that didn't belong to her.
Lynn stood over him with a soft smile, the hunger in her eyes didn't match.
Shoving his problems aside for now, he gestured to the seat beside him and took the drink.
"How're you holding up? Any change?"
Her smile dimmed. Even her eyes sagged with the truth.
"I've gotten used to it. That's about it."
He looked her over, remembering the bright red hair, the sharp grin, the fire she used to carry. Now her hair hung dull, gray, stripped of curl. Her skin drooped. Her eyes clouded like worn glass. Hard to believe a girl barely in her twenties was buried in that collapsing shell.
"Never wanted you to pay that kind of price."
She drew breath to argue, but he raised a hand.
"And it's a waste to get comfortable looking like this. Old doesn't suit you."
Even in her ruined state, she blushed. Her fingers tightened on the table.
"I don't enjoy being mocked. But if it amuses you, suppose I've found some worth."
He leaned back, studying her for a moment.
"Before I forget again—the Deathcaps. You still have them?"
Feeling like her statement was ignored, the question hit her like a blade. Her voice tightened.
"No, boss. I turned them over once I thought you'd forgotten. And sorry, I'm…supposed to be serving dr—"
She started to rise, but his hand closed around her arm like a clamp. Her whole body jolted. He felt the shock roll off her, but he hid his smile.
"Sit. I'm not done."
She obeyed instantly, but was surprised when he rose instead.
"Quiet! I've got something to say!"
The warehouse froze. Tankards dropped. A few men toppled off benches. But the room locked on him all the same.
'This'll be fun.'
Clearing his throat, he slipped into the swagger of the real Seo-jin, wearing the skin of the man with practiced precision.
"First off...did you bastards miss me?!"
A roar answered him.
"Yes, Boss!"
Grins everywhere except Min and Gregor, the duo stone-faced.
"Bet you did, you degenerates!"
The room erupted again. Cheers, stomps, bottles slammed together.
"Alright, shut it. I know you've been drooling to hear what I did while I was gone. And I'm telling you—"
He leaned in, eyes hardening, grin sharpening.
"—it was good. Real fucking good."
He planted both hands on the table.
"From today on, the Dead Hands will be the most overgeared crew in all of Shatterbay."
He lifted his arms.
And the table drowned under steel and gunmetal—blades, rifles, axes, bows, clubs, reinforced plates—piling in a rush of system light.
Silence swallowed the warehouse as every man shot to his feet, eyes flaring red.
Then the cheering broke loose like a riot.
And Seo-jin watched it all with a slow, rising smile.
'Celebrate now humans...nothing comes for free.'