Mercenary Black Mamba

'He is scared!'

Jang Pal Soo felt ecstatic. He even pitied Park Mu Ssang, who blankly stared at him without even attempting to evade.

'Does empty-headedness equal blind courage? I am grateful but I pity your fate!'

Mu Ssang, feeling playful, thrust his head toward Jang Pal Soo. His knee kick landed squarely on Mu Ssang's face. There was a heavy thud. Jang Pal Soo felt content. As the young man's crushed face was thrust backward in repulse, he was going to strike his chin and hold his neck, and knock him over. But what was this pain?

"Aarrgh!"

A shrill scream echoed in the room. Jang Pal Soo rolled on the floor convulsively. Mu Ssang's skull was as hard as titanium. During Operation Raccoon, the herbs whose infusions were fed to Mu Ssang by Ombuti, resulted in epidium awakening and the genetic material that failed to take over his brain accumulated in his bones and skin and enhanced them.

When one concentrated all their momentum and potential on their knee and struck metal, one couldn't expect one's knee to be intact. His kneecap and cartilage were completely destroyed, and his tendons mixed with his muscles. A heavy foot pressed down on Jang Pal Soo's chest.

"Ugh!"

Jang Pal Soo's breathing was cut off. His eyes bulged from their sockets.

"Silence! You attacked me first. Unless you want to bid farewell to all of your ribs, you will be quiet."

"Hurgh!"

Jang Pal Soo bit down on his lip to smother his scream.

"I know someone who was crippled by you when you shattered his kneecaps and kicked his back in Sabuk. He was a farmer and a father who entered the mine when the year's farm work was done, to pay for his daughter's education."

"So what? I only followed my orders!" Jang Pal Soo yelled.

"Yu Yeongchul confessed everything. You enjoyed the pain of someone else and was bribed to the brim as well."

"What does it matter if one dirt-eater was tortured and killed? Park Mu Ssang, you are a dead man now. If I don't report back by noon tomorrow, there will be backup. If you take me to the hospital now, I will exercise some mercy."

Momentarily, Mu Ssang felt a murderous intent. He never encountered someone with absolutely zero situational awareness like him. It must be due to his years of ordering around at the most powerful government agency of the time. Mu Ssang, increasing the pressure on Jang Pal Soo's chest, thought better of it. He was reluctant to murder but more than that, he felt like Jang Pal Soo didn't deserve a clean death. He didn't merit such mercy.

"A human is a human because they can empathize with someone else's pain. But I don't feel any empathy now. One of us must not be human."

"Hahaha! You are a dumbass. Go preach in some church and first, take me to a hospital."

Jang Pal Soo, as a master of martial arts, was keenly aware of his own body. He knew without looking that his kneecap was completely destroyed. He was going to be crippled if he doesn't go to a hospital right away. And Mu Ssang was preaching leisurely. He wanted to chew him up and spit him out.

"You shouldn't whine like a little girl at some shattered kneecap. You are the most notorious in your department. You killed five and crippled 30 in Seobinggo."

"It must be true that Yu Yeongchul confessed everything. He deserved to die then. You kissed some white devil's ass and got to a high position. Do you think of the ANSP as some donkey's dick now that you have diplomatic immunity? Do you think you will be safe in Korea after doing this?"

Jang Pal Soo yelled. Mu Ssang sighed. This man still didn't understand his place here and now.

"You are relieving some burden off my heart with your vile attitude. You gave your victims a choice between an infusion of red pepper and spicy seafood soup in Seobinggo. Now, you have a choice between the desert and death."

"Haha. How will you deal with the aftermath after my disappearance?"

"That is my business. If it is a hard choice for you, I shall give you some help. Chicken!"

Garuda clucked and looked up at Mu Ssang, tilting its head in confusion. It couldn't match the vibration of the sound "chicken" with any established concept.

[Garuda is your name. Chicken is your nickname.]

[I see. Second nickname: Wangnun. Third nickname: Chicken. Accepted. The sound waves have been matched with brain waves. Understood!]

The crest on Garuda's head shined.

"This one is not making use of his ears. Cut them off!"

A flash of white light shot from Garuda's body. The light grazed Jang Pal Soo's left ear. Mu Ssang noticed that the flash of light was a thin thread ejected from Garuda's beak. He wouldn't have been able to see it if it were not for Inner Eye. The thread, having severed Jang Pal Soo's ear, was retracted to the beak like a frog's tongue. Garuda held Jang Pal Soo's ear in its beak.

"Good job!"

Mu Ssang patted Garuda's buttocks with the tip of his shoe.

[It's nothing. This is what I use to sample vermin.]

'Hmm. You are quite fearsome!'

Mu Ssang shivered. "Vermin" was quite an arbitrary term, determined by human standards. To Garuda, humans could just be some vermin. No one would be wary of a half-plucked rooster. They risked being beheaded in broad daylight. This was a great skill for assassination, surpassing the efficacy of camouflage.

"Aargh!"

Blood oozed from where Jang Pal Soo's left ear used to be. Jang Pal Soo, touching his left cheek, screamed at last.

"He is a peculiar creature. He must feel pain with his faculty of sight. Chicken, stop his bleeding. His blood is contaminating the basement."

A laser beam shot from Garuda's eyes and cauterized Jang Pal Soo's wound. No matter where he jumped at the pain of cauterization, the laser accurately followed the wound and melted the tissue. It was a great maneuver.

"What is that?"

[This is a laser that burns the pest underground and hiding in bushes, after harvest. It is called particle-accelerated cannon.]

"Humans do a similar thing in autumn. It's a tradition to burn the grounds after harvest in Korea. What is the current output level?"

[Five percent. If I raise it to 50, the human will be carbonized.]

Mu Ssang shuddered. A newborn Garuda was able to carbonize a human. He couldn't imagine how powerful it would be when it completes all the awakening phases and reaches the size of 300 meters. It might be able to obliterate a small island with a single blow.

"Argh!"

Jang Pal Soo's head was white-empty. The young man was not human. His boss had once said over a drink that the CIA, KGB, DGSE, and Mossad have projects to turn humans with supernatural powers into weapons. This man must have been from one of such projects, run by the DGSE.

"Are you still hesitating?"

The man's voice was emotionless.

"Spare my life!"

Jang Pal Soo realized that this man was not a cultural councilor of the French embassy. He was a killer with a killing permit. He could never threaten this man with the ANSP's authority.

"So you chose the first option. They say that the most wretched living existence trumps the entire afterlife. But I am not quite sure of that. Let's begin. Unlike a certain someone, I don't pour spicy seafood soup into people's nostrils, waterboard them, or insert big needles under people's fingernails. Those are quite bothersome acts. I simply sever all the protruding appendages. You must understand what I mean by this. The nose, ears, lips, fingers, toes, penis. Your head, also, can also be considered protruding above your shoulders."

"Ugh!"

Jang Pal Soo shuddered. Even the Devil himself would be more merciful than that man. He didn't do anything to deserve this kind of ordeal. Tears and snot ran down Jang Pal Soo's face.

"I ask. You answer. It is simple, isn't it?"

"It is!"

The whole confession took less than 10 minutes. Jang Pal Soo, full of fear, told Mu Ssang all the confidential information and the atrocities he committed. The torture-resistance training he went through was of no use. Substances like scopolamine, used in torture-interrogation, interrupted the sympathetic nervous system of the body. Mu Ssang's energy shook one's entire soul. It had to be more effective.

"Jang Pal Soo, a horse gains muscle as it eats hay at night. A Korean public worker gains wealth as they are bribed. But even considering that, you took way too many bribes. You are mere grade seven, two steps from the lowest grade-nine public worker. Yet you own two buildings in Seoul. It is way too much. What do you think happened to the people you tortured and robbed of their assets and properties?"

Mu Ssang took out a 10-won coin from his pocket. The coin was rapidly heated to be glowing hot.

"You mean..."

Jang Pal Soo's face paled.

"You guessed correctly. My acquaintance was crippled for life at your hands. His daughter needed to drop out of middle school and enter the workforce as a bus attendant, announcing stops to the passengers. They are not your only victims. You are an animal. You should be branded."

The glowing-hot coin attached itself to Jang Pal Soo's right cheek. The revolting smell of burnt protein filled the air.

"Aargh!"

Jang Pal Soo wrenched the coin away but his cheek had already been conspicuously branded.

"A human worth 10-won should be treated as such. You, subsisting on taxpayer money, locked up and tortured dozens of said taxpayers. Six died at your hands. Thirty-six became crippled. I sentence you to a life sentence with labor! You are a grave criminal. You are not a human anymore, but a wet log."

"A wet log?"

"A prisoner-laborer. You are to plant trees in the desert and water them until the end of your life. That is why you are called a wet log. The only free time you will be granted is mealtime twice a day and sleep. Other than those, you are to plant trees and move water."

"No! Who gave you the right to sentence me?"

"I did. I am the king."

Mu Ssang raised his chin and puffed up his chest.

"This is absurd. You are a lunatic."

Jang Pal Soo, sprawled on the basement floor, looked up at Mu Ssang with dreamy eyes. His head was white-empty. He couldn't think of anything. He was an agent of the ANSP, superior even to prosecutors. How could he be sentenced to lifelong labor without a trial?

"Chicken, sedate him!"

A thin straw shot from Garuda's beak. The pointed tip like that of a syringe buried itself in Jang Pal Soo's butt. His eyelids slid down his eyes.

"You put him into a coma!"

[This is used to sedate a harmful pest to store it alive. He will gain consciousness in a week without any complications.]

"You indeed are a farm machine!"

Mu Ssang marveled.

"I Daedeok, of the Daegu branch. Jeong Pilsu, the analyst. Bastards!"

Mu Ssang committed the name of Jang Pal Soo's direct boss to his memory. He did well to register the property as a French cultural institute. Otherwise, many men with pistols would have swarmed over and would have threatened to pour spicy seafood soup into the residents' nostrils. He had felt more at ease in Africa where people acted savage without any qualms.

The tree intended to be still but the wind kept rustling its branches. There was a limit to the tree's patience. The wind needed to know its place. A hundredfold. A tenfold. Those ratios have become Mu Ssang's faith.

Mu Ssang returned to the main house and resumed eating. He was going to regret it if he didn't finish the spicy beef soup that Jin Soon cooked, making use of all her skills. The spicy soup, hand-shredded beef, sliced green onions, dried fern buds, the taro stem. The flavor of each ingredient was kept alive. That was the goal of every cook on Earth. Yijihana, having tasted the spicy beef soup, had also marveled at its rich flavors.

The side dish that went well with the spicy beef soup was the rice-bran paste. It is made by fermenting rice bran like they were soybeans. After eating spoonfuls of the spicy beef soup, one had to eat pickled green peppers dipped in the bitter rice bran paste for the flavor of the true Korean countryside. This was the flavor from Jin Soon's soul.

Mu Ssang raised his empty soup bowl above his head and shook it. Jin Soon, an absolute beauty wearing an apron, grinned luminously. The tails of Mu Ssang's mouth rose in an unconscious smile. The flower-patterned circular nickel-silver table. The cookie-cutter nickel-silver kettle. A bowlful of cooked rice. A small plate holding kimchi. A potful of dog-meat soup that was brought to a full boil. Shredded dried squids next to the kettle holding raw rice wine. The unsophisticated comfort was Jin Soon's true charm.

The gate bell rang. Yeongji ran up to the intercom and checked the screen. Yeongji, used to a simple mechanical bell, marveled at the intercom screen. A thug's face filled the entire screen.

"Mom! They came here too!"

Yeongji's face paled.

"Are you sure? Is it really them?"

"Yes. They look evil."

"I am not here!"

Yeonghui ran to her room.

"Look at you fuss!"

Gye Soon clucked her tongue and pressed the "Open" button. These men were Mu Ssang's acquaintances. They came here yesterday too. When the front gate opened, the two broad-shouldered men sprinted across the lawn.

"Mr. Park! I hope you have been well since last night!"

Neopchi bowed 90 degrees and glanced at Mu Ssang. Ttolppak, who was not permitted to even greet Mu Ssang, was frozen in place. The office of the Samsik syndicate was quite messy this morning. No one wanted to be Mu Ssang's guide. No one volunteered. In the end, Neopchi was "appointed" because he already knew Mu Ssang. Samsik ordered him to polish up on his language. Since early morning, Neopchi had to research a dictionary to find the apt phrases to greet Mu Ssang.

"You are here. Come in."

"No. We are comfortable here."

Neopchi rubbed his hands. One does not enter one's boss's house even if the boss invites them in. One who does is a stupid one.

"Yeonghui! Mu Ssang may really be a gang leader!"

Yeongji whispered in Yeonghui's ear.

"It is fine. If he is a good thug, he is a good person."

'Is she serious?'

Mu Ssang sighed deeply. There was no such thing as a good thug. Yeonghui was showing signs of Stockholm syndrome. He was worried about Yeonghui's mental health.

"The girls think I'm a gang leader because you are here. Next time, only bow 15 degrees. Don't wear white leather shoes. Don't use hair spray."

"Mr. Park. Is a wig also forbidden?"