The human skin mask maker.
It is only known to a very few people in Shenyang’s dark world.
Baek Jong-so visited his mother Geum Oh-yeon every year by changing his face using skin masks.
And every time, he was amazed.
The shop walls were filled with exquisite human masks that made one wonder if it was really made with human skin.
The amazing thing was that the price of the mask made with such sophisticated technology wasn’t as expensive as people thought.
Every time Baek Jong-so went, he was the only customer.
It even made him wonder that if the customers were so few, how could they pay the employees.
Anyways, Baek Jong-so had visited it regularly and memorized the faces of most of the employees.
“Hey. How did you get caught here?”
They heard from Neung Do-myung that it was a place where the worst criminals were detained.
It was strange that this person was being held in prison and even cruelly tortured.
Of course, according to Public Security, skin masks could be used for people to commit crimes. However, it wasn’t a first-degree crime.
“Uhhh… uhhhhh… uuuhhhh.”
His way of speaking was weird.
Baek Jong-so had taken off the gag in his mouth, yet the person didn’t speak.
And when he looked closely.
“How could he!”
The man’s tongue was cut off.
It wasn’t cut off evenly, as if the man had cut it by biting it with his teeth.
Clank!
“Uhhhh! Uhhhh! Uhhhh!”
The man struggled with his hands in shackles.
It seemed like the person wanted to say something, but it was hard to understand the pronunciation.
“Look here”
Baek Jong-so took a couple of steps back, and then Chun Yeowun made a sign with his index and middle finger.
The shackles on his wrists and ankles were torn apart.
Crack!
‘!!!’
The man was shocked.
The restraints were made of a special alloy, so it wasn’t something that could easily be cut down.
Of course, to Chun Yeowun, it wasn’t such a huge deal.
The shock was brief.
The man fell to the floor and then started to write something with his finger.
One stroke, and then another,
[Room]
‘Room.’
[Room]
‘Room.’
[…]
‘Ah!’
Chun Yeowun and Baek Jong-so exclaimed at the same time.
“You want help?”
The words written on the ground were asking for help.
“Uhhh.”
The man nodded and tried to write another letter.
At that moment, Chun Yeowun grabbed his neck with his right hand.
“Ack!”
“Ah!”
The man and also Baek Jong-so, were bewildered by the action.
“Speak.”
“Uhhhhh?”
“Speak so that I can understand.”
‘!?’
At Chun Yeowun’s words, the man’s eyes widened.
What the others couldn’t because of the slurred pronunciation, was not a problem for Chun Yeowun.
‘H-how?’
It was thanks to Nano’s ability.
It was possible, because Chun Yeowun had placed his hand on the vocal cords and analyzed it with the help of Nano.
“Uhhhh?”
[Really?]
Nano spoke the man’s words.
“Don’t talk about useless stuff, say what you need to.”
“Uhhh. Uhhhhh!”
[Please help me. We are out of time.]
“What do you mean, out of time?”
At Chun Yeowun’s question, the man looked at Baek Jong-so and said,
[Our store owner is in danger.]
The original voice held a lot of urgency, but as Nano was a machine, its voice held no emotions.
Chun Yeowun repeated the words he heard.
“The owner is in danger.”
Baek Jong-so looked at the man.
“Huh? The owner in danger? No, what happened to you?”
A Baek Jong-so’s question, the man’s eyes turned red.
[Please! We don’t have time to do this now. Please help me. Please, as a member of the Cult, please.]
“Cult?”
Chun Yeowun frowned.
Unless he heard it wrong, the man called himself a member of the Cult.
“Did you say you were a member of the Cult?”
“uhhh…”
The man hesitated at the question.
‘Can this one be trusted?’
The Black Sky Company’s position and the Sky Demon Order weren’t in a good condition.
Which was why people didn’t reveal it unless in time of emergencies.
The worried man opened his mouth, judging that Baek Jong-so could be trusted.
[I am a member of the Sky Demon Order.]
‘A member of the Sky Demon Order?’
Baek Jong-so’s eyes fluttered.
He thought that the people in the shop were all just regular people.
But if they were members of the Cult, why didn’t they ever reveal or hint their identity to him?
He was puzzled, when Chun Yeowun said.
“Which clan?”
The man was startled at Chun Yeowun’s question.
‘Is this person also from the cult…? Then whose faction did he take?’
Currently, the Cult is divided into three factions.
In such situations, everyone had to be careful.
Hesitating on what to do, he soon decided that it wasn’t worth thinking about it and said.
“Ghost Illusion clan.”
“Ghost Illusion clan!”
Chun Yeowun couldn’t hide his surprise.
He never thought that he would hear that name from the man’s mouth.
Ghost illusion clan.
One of the main clans in the Sky Demon Order.
It was a major clan in charge of information gathering. The clan dispatched spies throughout Jianghu.
‘That’s why they were making skin masks?’
As a group that controlled intelligence and spies, the people were masters in making masks, and it was a skill passed down through generations.
Of course, the human skin mask wasn’t something that only the Ghost Illusion clan could make, but Chun Yeowun couldn’t think of another clan that would do it as perfectly as them.
“You are from the Ghost Illusion clan?”
Geum Oh-yeon was shocked.
She, too, seemed shocked to hear about the clan.
In a trembling voice, and as she looked at the traces of torture, she asked.
“Is director Huan here?”
Whether he knew her or not, the man looked at her with familiar eyes and shook his head.
“uhhh. Uhhhh. Uhhhh.”
[He is not here. More than that, please help the store owner. Please!]
“Who is the owner of the store?”
At Chun Yeowun’s question, the man spoke with an anxious face.
[… Our head.]
A city about 14 km southeast of the Bureau.
As the Gate Warning was issued, the dark night streets were filled with silence.
All the citizens had fled to shelters.
A shabby building was hidden at the end of an alley in the city that had numerous buildings.
This particular building seemed to have a secret.
There was a 3rd basement floor.
The elevator showed only the 2nd basement floor, but there were hidden stairs leading from it to the 3rd.
Of course, even if one was lucky enough to find the stairs to go down, the safe room was hidden.
This so-called safety shelter room was made of 80cm thick superalloy and couldn’t be opened from the outside without a key and a code.
“Haaa….”
Inside, there was a man, breathing in relief.
He was in his forties, with a slender physique.
The man seemed nervous as he couldn’t take his eyes off the CCTV video screen installed in the safe room.
The screen was showing the stairway entrance and all the interior of the 3rd basement floor.
Bit.
The man bit his little fingernail.
The reason behind his anxiousness was that he was hiding from someone.
‘At least the Gate Warning was issued.’
Due to the sudden Gate Warning, the operation of the underground train had been suspended.
Therefore, he had come back here and hidden himself.
‘Ugh, if only they were 30 minutes late…’
The man would have been out of Shenyang.
Now he just wanted to hide and survive the crisis.
The safe room, created in case of emergencies, was strong enough to withstand explosives, but being inside made him feel insecure.
‘This place in Shenyang is no longer a safe place.’
This city’s safety was a thing of the past.
It was such a gloomy time.
Titik!
‘Uh?’
One of the screens on the monitor got disconnected, and the screen went black.
The CCTV on the lobby side of the building.
The man who was looking at the screen was perplexed.
‘Run to another place!’
All the windows and entrances to the building were closed in response to the Gate Warning.
The fact that someone broke through the shutter meant…
Crack!
The CCTVs kept turning off till the basement stairs.
‘Damn it!’
The man instinctively knew that it was the enemy.
Frustrated, he pressed buttons on the device under the monitor.
The traps on the 3rd basement floor were activated.
‘Please don’t notice.’
However, as if ignoring everything that was happening, the stairs to the basement were figured out.
And the CCTV installed in the narrow hallway showed a black shadow on the screen.
The man tried to rewind the video.
And he set it to slow mode at 8x.
Shhhh!
The masked man was slashing the CCTV camera with his sword at great speed.
Even though the video was slowed, the movements weren’t clear.
Crack!
‘Ah!’
At that time, the CCTV entrance to the 3rd basement was turned off.
Now, there were only two CCTV cameras left.
He thought it was one person, but there were six people.
Among those wearing black jackets, the one with the white stripe on his wrists was probably the captain. When he gestured, two men threw something at the CCTV.
Crack!
Both cameras were broken.
It meant that all he could see inside the safe room was lost.
The only shield the man had left was the trap on the 3rd basement floor, and the wall made of superalloy.
‘What should I do?’
The man’s eyes were dyed with anxiety.
Surely the wall was strong, but it was impossible to understand what was happening outside.
The man lifted his weapon in the corner of the safe room.
Sweat trickled down his forehead.
It was around 3 minutes or so.
“Haaa.”
Cold air began to enter the safe room.
He thought it was because of his breath, but then he saw white breath coming out of his mouth.
‘T-this is?’
Jjjkkk!
Cold frost began to form on the wall of the safe room.
‘Rapid cooling?’
It was then.
Woong!
A sharp blue blade pierced the wall of the frozen safe.
The sword energy made a single slash to take down the frozen superalloy door.
‘Damn it!
Srrng!
The man hurriedly tried to draw his sword.
At that very moment, the alloy door shattered, and someone broke into the safe room.
The hiding man swung his sword.
The Ghost Sword technique of the Flying Ghost Sword was unfolded in his hand.
The sword skill was so fast that it was exhilarating to see.
However, the martial arts of the intruder were far superior to his.
Cahchachang!
He lightly blocked the flashy-looking sword and then thrust his sword through the man’s chest.
Puck!
“Damn!”
However, a woman’s scream escaped out of the man’s mouth.
“Found you!”
The masked man, who was the intruder, quickly sealed the blood points.
Tatatak!
“Euk!”
The body couldn’t move.
The person, who was taken down without much of a fight, looked at the masked man in anger.
The man had special goggles on, and the eyes were the only exposed part of his face, so finding out his identity was impossible.
Clench!
The masked man grabbed the person’s head.
“Ugh! Wh-what are you doing! Let go!”
As he shouted, the masked man lifted the grabbed head higher.
And.
Tear!
Starting with hair, the skin of the man’s face was torn off.
When the skin was torn, muscles and veins had to be revealed, but instead, a face was revealed inside.
A beautiful woman in her late twenties with short hair.
“Huan Xia. To be hiding in this place.”
Grab!
At the masked man’s words, the short-haired woman, no, Huan Xia, bit her lip.
She hoped everything would be resolved, but she got caught.
The masked man reported to the captain behind.
“Target has been secured.”
“Now, let’s head back.”
Hearing the masked captain’s words, the masked man put his hands on the woman’s shoulder.
“Kyaaa…”
Tatatak!
When she tried to scream, the man sealed her blood spots, making her unable to.
Helplessly suppressed, she had no choice but to let them detain her.
The masked people climbed the stairs to the second-floor basement.
‘Ah…’
The woman was draped over the shoulder of a masked man and was led from there.
They didn’t head to the building’s entrance.
They went to the 2nd floor above and jumped from the window as if it was the entrance.
Tak!
It was the typical blindspot as the building was in an alley, and darkness reigned everywhere.
The masked man who jumped first opened the manhole cover on the floor right in front of the building.
The route they used seemed to be the sewers.
‘The clothes smelled disgusting…’
Huan Xia thought.
However, it was the optimal route as the Warning was issued, and the Bureau was everywhere blocking the roads.
“I will head down first.”
The man who opened the manhole jumped down the sewer first.
Well, he tried to.
The moment he jumped, a sound came.
Woong!
“Euk!”
Thud!
The masked man’s body flew upwards and crashed into the wall of the building.
Clang! Srrng!
The masked men, who weren’t sure what happened inside the sewer, pulled out their swords at once.
‘What?’
Huan Xia, who was also bewildered by what was going on, saw someone walking from one side of the alley.
It was Chun Yeowun, walking as his black coat fluttered.
Chun Yeowun, who approached them, mumbled under his breath.
“Found the rats.”
The eyes of the masked captain narrowed.
‘… A master.’
Judging that the enemy was unusual, he nodded towards the manhole and told the other people who were tying up the woman.
“Go first. I will stop him…”
It was then.
Slash!
Something fell to the alley’s floor..
It was the captain’s right arm.
‘!?’
“Kuaaak…!”
Grab!
“Emp!”
Just as the captain was about to scream, someone grabbed his mouth and lifted him up.
‘Wh-when did he?’
Pat!
The masked people, who discovered Chun Yeowun, were startled as they tried to run away.
To them, Chun Yeowun spoke in his usual cynical tone.
“Who told you that you could leave?”
