There was a saying that education starts at the dining table. Of course, each household chose which lessons to teach, and it differed greatly depending on the disposition of the parents.
“Ah. I should’ve just punched that otaku.”
“Baby, stop! You’re just wasting your breath on him.”
At the very least, these people’s parents should have taught them not to speak in such a way. A smile blossomed on Lee Gun’s lips.
The couple went on.
“I bet they caused the scene around the Devil’s Tower. That’s why Lee Gun came into focus for no reason.”
“It’s fine, baby. I’ll make you feel all better tonight. Don’t worry about them.”
“Alright. I’ll be patient. Bum!” Even though the man had met Lee Gun for the first time, he called Lee Gun a bum.
Even Lee Gun wouldn’t call someone a name if he had met them for just ten seconds. Moreover, his mind was preoccupied with a question. Everyone was calling him a Lee Gun wannabe. The forty-year-old Mr. Hwahng, who he had met outside the tower, had asked him whether he was the child of Lee Gun or not.
‘At the very least, my face looks nothing like my old self.’ While exiting the tower, Lee Gun had thrown away any gear that people might recognize. They had been too cumbersome to carry around. Therefore, he had no idea why people were calling him a fake. However, it didn’t matter in the end.
“Hey, you two cockroaches over there!” He called out to the rude couple.
The couple looked back at him in surprise.
“What? Cockroaches?”
“Are you talking about us?”
“Yes, I’m talking about you two monkeys.” Lee Gun made a hand gesture as if he were calling for his dog.
His actions baffled the couple, and they lagged in disbelief.
“He’s lost his mind.”
The couple approached Lee Gun and his companions. Seeing this, Mr. Hwahng and the teen became scared stiff. It was inevitable.
‘Fuck! They are from the Gemini temple!’ Their gazes headed toward the man’s neck and the clothes worn by him. His cardigan had a large emblem stitched into it, and his neck had a large tattoo of the same emblem. This emblem signified the god in Japan. Only one person could display and divine receive protection that emblem without repercussion. ‘Shit! Why did we have to cross the number one temple in Korea!’
The couple seemed to be enjoying the current situation. It was odd to be called out like that, but it wasn’t like they had good intentions in the first place. As expected, the man got close to Lee Gun as if he had been waiting for this moment. Taking a deep drag of his cigarette, he fiendishly curled his lips.
“What, you otaku bastard? Did I get it right? Are you some Lee Gun wannabe?” The man was about to grind the butt of the cigarette on Lee Gun’s face. “Or are you just mad I’m bad-mouthing Lee Gun? Stop sucking him off— Koohk?!”
The man almost bit his tongue.
“Ooh! Ooh!”
The man had taken a blow to his shin. The pain was so intense that the man felt as if his shin were burning. He couldn’t even scream; he just opened and closed his mouth like a fish.
Lee Gun laughed. He didn’t care whether he was called an imposter or not. “You should apologize first for smoking in the streets.”
“!”
“In the first place, you should have…”
“?”
Lee Gun’s index finger appeared in front of the man’s eyes. Then…
Bah-gahk!
“Ahhhhk!”
When Lee Gun flicked his finger, an incredible amount of force struck the man’s chin. A sound resembling the sound of bones cracking reverberated in the air, and a crooked smile appeared on Lee Gun’s lips. “You shouldn’t smoke in the streets near people.”
As the man flew backward, his cigarette fell to the floor. Everyone’s mouth fell open at the spectacle.
The teen, who was about to help Lee Gun run away, turned pale from shock. It was to be expected. The fallen man was from the Gemini temple, which was held in high esteem around the world. That was why this scene was so unbelievable. ‘Both of them are monsters, and they are at least Rank A!’ The big brute, who could not be moved even with a forklift, had been sent flying with a flick of the finger.
Lee Gun didn’t care about people’s reactions. He picked up the cigarette that he had knocked away and leisurely walked toward the fallen man. Then, he took a vicious grip of the man’s hair. “Tell me. Should a person’s face be used as an ashtray? Hmm?”
“…!”
The man, whose head was in Lee Gun’s grip, couldn’t say anything. Lee Gun’s fingers were like deadly weapons, and his grip was beyond imagination. Moreover, this was supposed to be a no-fight zone where the gods suppressed the power of all their followers. He shouldn’t have been able to use this much power.
Nothing made sense to the fallen man. ‘What the hell? I can’t feel the god he follows, so he should be a worker ant!’ Ants referred to the normal civilians. They had to pay a monthly protection fee. The ants were merely there to pay taxes to the Twelve Zodiacs and the temples directly under their control. Therefore, this man in front of him was an oddity.
‘Shit. What’s going on!’ The man had been on the losing end in front of his woman up until now. His pride wouldn’t allow him to retreat. His opponent was much smaller than him and looked like a high schooler. Although his power was suppressed, it wasn’t totally gone. He just had half of it.
The man gripped his broken jaw as he tried to get up. “You son of a— Kuhk!”
He couldn’t complete his sentence; he almost threw up. The cigarette had been pushed into his mouth, and the ashes and smoke made their way down his throat.
Lee Gun smiled while the cigarette lay backward in the man’s mouth. “You do know second-hand smoking is bad, right?”
The enraged man tried to say something, but when he saw Lee Gun’s finger get close to his face again, he became frightened. If this man were to hit him again, his face would be pulverized. “Ah, unduhstand! Stahhp!”
Lee Gun let out a satisfied smile. “Yes, you shouldn’t blow smoke on a person’s face. Right?”
“Ooh-oohp!”
“You’ll never do it again, right?”
“Oohp! Ooh-ooh-oohp!”
“Alright. I’m glad we cleared this up.” Lee Gun retracted his hand.
The man relaxed, but Lee Gun’s hand moved once again as he let out a burst of savage laughter.
Bbah-gahk!
“Kuh-huhk!”
This time it was a fist. In the end, the man collapsed to the floor with a broken nose. Lee Gun’s lips curled upward. “If words worked on you, I wouldn’t have done this in the first place” Lee Gun wasn’t done yet. “Hey, female cockroach.”
“!”
“You better put that weird item away before I cut off your wrist.”
“?!” The woman had been discreetly aiming something at Lee Gun’s back. She had used her Divine skill to erase her presence, so she had no idea how he had sensed her. Moreover, Lee Gun hadn’t even turned around to look at her. Therefore, she was about to shuffle backward in panic.
“This is a warning.” Lee Gun raised his hand. “If you act suspicious behind someone’s back, there is a chance you will get killed.”
The woman did a double-take as she tried to move. However, Lee Gun was faster.
Bbah-gahk!
An incredibly loud sound rang out as the woman was sent flying backward.
“Huh-huhk!”
Lee Gun had just flicked his finger on the woman’s forehead. She was fortunate that no cervical vertebrae broke from the impact. In the end, the woman frothed at the mouth as she fell. The weird propellant that she had been about to spray rolled across the ground.
The only person who was calm in the current situation was Lee Gun. “This should be enough to teach them a lesson.”
Everyone else was freaking out. “Hey! What the hell are you doing! Even if they were in the wrong, you shouldn’t use your abilities in the middle of the street!”
However, Lee Gun’s absurd answer left them dumbfounded.
“What are you talking about? They would be dead if I used my abilities.”
“W-what?”
Mr. Hwahng and the young man were astounded. ‘He took down Saints from a first rank temple with his bare hands?’ They had realized he wasn’t a normal person when he had killed the Mutant Wolves. However, they never expected this!
‘Which god did he receive blessing from…?’ They were having a hard time closing their mouths.
However, Lee Gun was more surprised than them.
Why?
‘It’s that bastard’s item.’ Lee Gun wrinkled his nose as he picked up the spray can and the necklace that he had ripped away from the woman. It looked as if he were picking a piece of tissue with feces on it.
Lee Gun became sure of it. ‘These are the divine items used by those bastards.’ In essence, these were items containing divine power. The Twelve Zodiacs had to offer sacrifices to their respective gods to receive and use these artifacts.
If Lee Gun’s senses were correct, the spray and clothes were from the <Gemini> in Japan. It was the energy from the woman who occupied the seat of the Twins.
‘How can a regular person use it?’ No, Lee Gun could tell that the woman he had just flicked away could use magical energy, so she wasn’t a regular person. That wasn’t all.
[A materialistic and greedy god, the owner of the Golden Fleece, is enjoying this situation!]
[He wants you to hurry up and kill the couple!]
[He wants to see blood flow!]
[He’s clamoring to see them moan in pain!]
[He says to not worry about the prying eyes!]
[If you kill the two, he promises to give you useful items!]
Lee Gun furrowed his brows as he looked at his surroundings. From around ten kilometers away, he could feel the energy of an island nation. He could feel the energy of the god of wealth from a certain region.
‘First, it was an island nation, and now it’s from a continent?’ He was referring to China. It seemed the gods had divided up Korea. Lee Gun could feel the barriers set up by the gods of China and Japan. He could acutely feel the energy of the god in Japan from the entrance of the subway. This enraged him. ‘I warned those bastards to stay away from Korea.’
While he was gone, the gods had marked their territories in Korea like dogs. There was a reason Lee Gun hated the Twelve Zodiacs and the gods they served. His hate wasn’t baseless. If he had to make a comparison, the twelve gods were like fleas or mosquitos who sucked the blood out of humans. They were parasites.
Did it make sense that these parasites appeared without any goal? Of course not. Parasites wouldn’t show up if there was no food. They had gotten involved since there was prey to eat.
That was why Lee Gun was angry; the parasites had marked their territory in Korea. The fact that they could extensively mark this place meant that all the artifacts he had placed to protect Korea had been removed.
‘There’s no way the items I installed would disappear on their own.’ Lee Gun had been wondering why he couldn’t feel the energy from his items. Now, he had received the explanation.
A crooked smile appeared on his face as he thought about all this nonsense.
[Warning! The owner of the Golden Fleece is coming for you! He is using his constructs!]
Red shadows crawled beneath the surprised Lee Gun’s feet. These shadows had been enjoying a good time monitoring the current situation, and they had kept the crow away. They were constructs of Aries, who resided in China. The shadows crawled underneath Lee Gun as if they were about to consume him. It seemed they could feel Lee Gun wasn’t related to any gods, so the owner of the Golden Fleece marked him as easy prey.
[The constructs of the Ram are trying to satisfy their desires by using their power.]
The red shadows giggled as they tried to touch Lee Gun.
“Stop trying to get cute with me, you little shits.” Lee Gun shouted.
The shadows came to a dead stop when they felt Lee Gun’s murderous intent, then they started to tremble.
“Fuck off right now.” Lee Gun possessed the eyes of the Snake, so the constructs couldn’t withstand his gaze. They went away. Lee Gun let out a smile at their foolishness. ‘They pretty much exist to kiss the ass of the gods, yet they dare attack me?’
At the same time, the barrier around them fell. Mr. Hwahng and the young man, who stood in the distance, looked around in surprise.
“Why did the barrier suddenly fall?” It seemed the young man was quite experienced with this topic, and he was stunned at this development. “The constructs in charge of the barriers have disappeared! What the hell… I guess it doesn’t matter if those tax collectors moved out from this region.”
This had never happened before. The two men turned to look at Lee Gun. However, Lee Gun ignored them as he yelled, “Oh yeah!”
“What? Is something wrong!” the young man asked.
Lee Gun quickly approached them. “Hey, kid. Check out what this bastard is wearing.”
When Lee Gun pointed toward the clothes of the fallen man, Mr. Hwahng and the young man groaned. It was as if they finally grasped the full extent of their current situation.
“You were quick to pick up on it!”
“That’s right. This emblem signifies Korea’s number one Gemini temple.”
The man was from a temple that was under the direct management of a Saint. Moreover, it was under one of the twelve Zodiacs.
“Why did it have to be a temple belonging to Japan…!”
“No, no. I’m not talking about that,” Lee Gun said.
“Huh?”
“These are designer brands, right?” he asked.
The question surprised Mr. Hwahng and the young man, but they soon looked over the clothes and accessories of the fallen couple.
“Their clothes, bags, and shoes are… all of it is Chanel and Hermes… Jeez! How much are these worth?”
“Even their underwear are designer labels.”
Lee Gun asked, “Since they are covered in all of these brands, it means they are rich, right?”
“What? Of course! The Gemini temple is filled with big shots and their children.”
“This means their quality of life won’t suffer if I strip them of all these items, right?” Lee Gun continued to ask.
“… What?” Mr. Hwahng and the young man thought they had heard it wrong.
However, Lee Gun laughed in a devious manner. After leaving the tower, this expression was the most treacherous one he had put on. “Good. I needed a change of clothes.”
“What?!”
“I also need compensation for mental anguish they caused me.” Lee Gun said.
“That’s a bit….”
“Ah! Of course, I don’t need their underwear.” The starving hero’s hands moved faster than the speed of light.
