Mercenary Black Mamba

The cold, bluish lights flashing in Mu Ssang's eyes began stabbing Bak In-bo's pupils.

The older man's eyes were numb while his hands and feet shriveled. Then, finally, it was here. Bak In-bo's whole body pricked and stung as if thousands of needles were prodding him. Even his diaphragm froze solid from tension.

This bone-chilling shudder ran down from the top of his head right down to his toes. That must've been a warning. His nephew silently said that any lies would mean Bak In-bo's immediate demise.

'Bloody hell!'

Bak In-bo held back his scream and squeezed his eyes shut without himself knowing. The anger riding along on the wife's hatred and the truth behind his over-the-top anger was none other than his fear. Fear of that question getting thrown in his direction one day manifested itself as aggressiveness toward his nephew.

'I'm such a moron. A goddamn crazed moron!'

Bak In-bo suddenly wanted to chop off his willy and throw it outside the window. The old saying about mismanaging your 'three tips' leading to your family's ruination was not a joke.

A slender yet captivating figure, pitiful facial features, and a heart of gold. Je-soo was an angel. No one would blame Bak In-bo for fancying an angel, but he did something unforgivable, which was the problem here.

'That son of a b*tch!'

This whole mess was the fault of the bastard named Lee Kang-chul. What was it called again, Voodoo or tofu cult? If you were kidnapping someone, shouldn't you do your job correctly before things go south?! Why did you leave that punk alone so that he could blab his mouth like this!

Bak In-bo couldn't tell what that bastard told his nephew, and that was a huge problem here. One wrong word uttered would lead to everything going down the drain.

Events of that day hurtled through his memories like a revolving lantern. The unidentified assailant trying to hurt Mrs. Je-soo that night threw open the door and fled quickly. Moonlight flooded in through the wide-open doorway like a waterfall. And inside that dark room, a single white flower appeared like a dreamy painting.

Her snow-white inner skin glowed softly under the moonlight. There was an angel he could only look on furtively from a distance for the past dozen or so years. How was it possible that someone with such a slender figure hid such beautiful curves!

Bak In-bo's vision grew pitch dark, his throat getting dry. His wife, with a bone structure of an ox and crocodile-like skin, wasn't even human compared to his sister-in-law.

His hands moved on their own to pull down her pants around her knees. He swore on his soul that this wasn't his real intention. His junior, deprived of action for so long, reared up instantly. It stood with such power that his groin began hurting in no time at all. His hands moved on their own again to drag down the woman's bloomers by her hips.

Bak In-bo's vision was assaulted by the sight of a dark 'forest' found between the delta of a pure-white flower. His junior demanding to be released writhed in anger. All his reasoning was paralyzed at that moment. Nothing besides that dark forest was in his mind. In short, he went insane from lust.

His lustful instincts were soaring that he couldn't even undo his pants properly. Instead, he hurriedly fished out his junior and was about to thrust his way forward, only for Mrs. Je-soo to kick an oil lamp. And when the oil holder of the light smacked him on the forehead...

'...Ah!'

The stinging pain coursed throughout his senses, causing his strained junior to explode.

The front of his pants became a wet, sticky mess. His once-raging libido instantly waned. Nothing in this world seemed as futile as this at that moment. He wanted to cry. No, he tried to commit suicide. But his sense of shame didn't last for long. The sticky, warm liquid trickling down from his torn forehead sobered him up pretty quickly.

'What is the name of...!'

For a moment there, Bak In-bo was skeptical of the images that confronted him.

Her hair was messy, large breasts glowing under the moonlight and groin just about hidden in the shadows, her eyes wide-opened with shock, and mouth gagged with tape...

Mrs. Je-soo was gasping, crying, struggling away in her restraints. Bak In-bo's gaze drifted down to his soggy crotch for some reason. All he could see was his limp junior and a wet crotch.

But, why did I...?

His mind went blank.

Click, clack.

Sounds of stones falling and hitting came from the backyard. Someone was trying to cross the collapsed stone wall. Bak In-bo snapped wide awake just at that point. If someone sees this scene, both Mrs. Je-soo and he will be done for.

He untied the tape binding her wrists and hurriedly dashed out of there. Thankfully, the one who showed up was the young Mu Ssang. The kid said something to him, but Bak In-bo didn't have any mental leeway to understand what the boy was saying. He couldn't even remember what his replies were, too.

'Why did I do that back then?'

He has been asking that question over and over again for the past dozen years or so. Of course, he deeply adored Mrs. Je-soo. But his one-sided crush could not be revealed publicly, causing his frustration to grow. Sometimes, he'd ask for assistance from his junior to relieve the built-up frustration using three of his fingers (Author's note: the size of Bak In-bo's junior means not all five is needed for the job). Finally, however, he could swear in the name of the heavens above that he never wanted to do the actual deed with her.

Lee Kang-chul might be the culprit responsible for causing Mrs. Je-soo to run away from home, but it was none other than Bak In-bo that put the finishing touch by actually committing a heinous act on her. Je-soo was deeply in love with Bak In-bo's younger brother, and she was also particularly strict with protecting her womanhood.

Maybe because she grew up as an orphan, Je-soo was also very generous with her love for her family. However, the shock of the assault ended up wrecking and overturning her mental state.

One moment of mistake destroyed everything beyond repair. Bak In-bo spent so many sleepless nights imprisoned by the sense of guilt and unrelenting regret. From a specific moment on, his junior stopped being active too. Then, he began pouring all his energy into running his business.

Wasn't there an old saying about losing some, winning some? Now that he could no longer embrace women, even alcohol and gambling became a distant memory. His business seemed to be riding a favorable wind as things continued to work out swimmingly.

But, so what? He already guessed that the worst stain in his entire life would one day make an appearance again and start strangling him. Sure, he shot his load even before making contact with the fertile female land, but he was still lost to his lust back then. A truly irreparable nightmare would've unfolded that day if it hadn't been for his premature ejaculation.

Mu Ssang wasn't demanding reparations for all the hardship he suffered because he was a magnanimous, forgiving man. No, it's because his heart was vast. He was also fully capable of going through hell and back just to dig out the truth if it was related to his mother, Mrs. Je-soo.

Would his nephew forgive him if he said that he blew his load without going inside? Not in a million years. Je-soo's purity had been defiled while Bak In-bo's pride as a man was shattered into smithereens. Running his mouth off now would only lead to his head flying off his neck.

The truth wasn't always moral or ethical. He was dying anyway, so he had no qualms about getting beaten to death here. However, he'd be too ashamed to face his younger brother in the afterlife if he caused another great injustice of the nephew murdering his uncle.

Bak In-bo racked his brain until fumes of smoke began rising from his head. This was the case of quick-witted thinking. Facing an impending threat to his very life, Bak In-bo's brain quickly cooked up a scenario consisting of 90% truth and 10% falsehood. That 10% was a secret that he'd have to take to his grave.

Bak In-bo abruptly opened his eyes. His grave determination to speak only the truth seemed to envelop each word he spoke. "Earlier that day, your mother and my wife had a massive argument. My wife said that half of the harvest from the leased land was too much and that Je-soo would only get twenty percent like everyone else. Your mother then demanded the farmlands of about ten majigi be given back to her since it was meant for her family in the first place.

"Your mother was correct. Including the farmlands I should've given to Jin-bo in the calculations would provide us with twenty percent, not fifty. Your mother never got into an altercation in her life, but she still stepped up this time, and that was all for your sake, nephew. Mrs. Je-soo had to raise a child without her husband, so she must've been feeling anxious and rushed.

"Even if Je-soo was right, she's always been frail. There's no way she could've won against my vindictive wife. So she got taken to the proverbial cleaners and left us in tears. Afterward, well, I had a massive fight with my wife. As you may already know, I adore your mother as much as I detest my wife. I'm a man, after all. After all, any hot-blooded men would've fallen for a good woman like your mother."

Bak In-bo spoke fearlessly. If he wanted to be convincing, he had to admit those things that needed to be accepted first.

Mu Ssang silently nodded. Baek-bu (father's older brother) indeed liked Mu Ssang's mother a little too much, and in reality, he did show goodwill quite often behind his wife, Missus Jang's back. Thanks to their uncle giving Mu Ssang's family 50% of the profits from the leased farmlands, he and his mother didn't have to worry about putting food on the table.

Honestly speaking, Mu Ssang wasn't aware of Bak In-bo's goodwill being based on his unrequited love, whether back then or now.

"I was tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, I decided to go to Junggok-ma. I couldn't hold myself back from all the worries, you see. But I was too embarrassed to call out to your mother late at night, so I just hung around outside the window, trying to figure out if Mrs. Je-soo was asleep or not.

But then, the situation in the room sounded strange. I heard a man panting and your mother whimpering helplessly. I was shocked and started paying closer attention. I mean, even if every widow in the world starts inviting man to their quarters, I knew that your mother would not be one of them."

"Well, yes. Mother only knew my father and no one else, after all." Mu Ssang curtly replied. Was there any other couple as loving as his mom and dad? Probably not!

He already heard the in-depth details of that day straight from Lee Kang-chul's mouth, anyway. His uncle's testimony so far was just unnecessary additional info.

"I realized that some nutcase was trying to assault your mother. So I kicked the door down and jumped inside. I was about to grab the back of that bastard's neck, but he took a swipe at me with an oil lamp.

I got hit on the forehead, and just as I began staggering, that bastard managed to escape from there. Mrs. Je-soo's top and pants were already removed, while some industrial tape was used to gag her and bind her arms and legs. She was seconds away from a truly horrifying fate. I sighed in relief, took all the tape off her, and quickly got out of the room. That's when I found you in the yard."

Feeling parched with thirst, Bak In-bo gulped down the water in the cup. Mu Ssang slowly nodded while listening. His uncle's story didn't seem to have any missing pieces or flaws within it. On that day, Mu Ssang stayed out late to play in the willow forest and only returned home around midnight. Uncle had a piece of tape stuck to his forehead back then. It must've been the wound he got from the oil lamp.

"I was supposed to be strict about being near a woman, so can you understand how flustered I was? I returned to Jip-eun Dari as quickly as I could. And then... all sorts of unsavory rumors made rounds regarding your mother running away from her home, but I never said a word about that night's events.

"The more you hit a fugu, the bigger its belly will become. If I stepped up carelessly or without a plan, it would've been the same as pouring oil into the fire. I might not be a good human being, but that day's events? I swear under the heavens that everything I did on that day was all above board, that I did nothing to stain my honor as a man."

Bak In-bo ended his testimony while looking as heroic and solemn as the narrator in a silent film. He was born with quick wits and even acquired the wisdom of age on top, too. As such, Bak In-bo's silver tongue was as fluent and effortless as the waters of Nakdong River during the flood season.

Mu Ssang kept his eyes closed, not saying a single word. He wasn't an empty-headed idiot who'd believe Bak In-bo's testimony just like that. Instead, according to his uncle, he was a savior responsible for protecting his mother's honor if his words were to be believed at face value, of course.

'My poor mother...!'

Lee Kang-chul had been a lodger for over a year. First, she almost got raped by a man she'd been cooking breakfast and dinner for every day. Then she flashed her nude body at the brother-in-law, who rushed into her room. Mother was a frail woman who only knew her father, and that's why she must've received a devastating mental trauma.

However, would that trauma be bad enough for a loving mother to abandon her son and disappear? As a man, Mu Ssang found it hard to understand.

Something was missing here. The motive was not convincing enough.

Mu Ssang gritted his teeth. No, this was wrong. His uncle needed to remain as the villain here. He should be interrogating his uncle with questions, didn't you also try to assault my mother? However, his lips didn't want to part.

How could a son say such terrible things that would humiliate his mother? No matter how he resented his uncle, they were still family sharing the same blood. Mu Ssang couldn't just start beating this older man up like a gangster.

Just as he sat there, trying to organize his thoughts, Bak In-bo suddenly opened his mouth. "Mu-ssang-ah!"

He lowered his voice with deliberate intent. Finally, he realized that this was the perfect time to drive the nail home.

"You're an adult now. I'm a man, and so are you. The past of us men kicking and punching can be dealt with later. However, the matter with your mom cannot. Just one unresolved question can make our relationship much more abrasive and difficult. Your father has passed on while your mother is missing, so whether you like it or not, I'm your only remaining blood relative. Now that I've come clean... I'm not going to leave anything behind now."

"There's more?"

"It's embarrassing to admit this, but I've been impotent for over two decades. A big part of why my wife treats me like useless trash is related to my limp junior that can't get up anymore."

'What kind of an out-of-nowhere crap is he talking about?' Mu Ssang blinked dumbfoundedly like a frog that accidentally swallowed a wasp.

"If you don't believe me, we can go to a hospital to confirm. Or, if you want to confirm now, I'll call a trustworthy urologist to the office."

Bak In-bo began kicking up a fuss as if he was prepared to take his pants off right now. Mu Ssang's eyes flickered right at that moment. That's right. He wasn't narrow-minded enough to demand reparations for events that happened when he was still a little kid. But the incident involving his mother was like a thorn stuck in his throat. If he could resolve this suspicion just as his uncle had alluded to, then his mother's honor would remain intact while the weight on his heart would be lifted by a bit.

There was no need to call for a doctor. No other types of examination were as good as the combination of five cooperative movements, Dimensional Sight and the Rule of Sight.

Wuuoong-

Dimensional Sight scanned Bak In-bo's body. The neural network starting from the brain and the spinal cord and connected to the older man's phallic organ floated up like a detailed hologram.

Baek-bu wasn't lying. The penis arteries were blocked off, while erectile tissues were disconnected. Activating the Rule of Sight caused the tiny tissues to enlarge in Mu Ssang's view. Blood clots as hard as pebbles were clogging up the arteries while the erectile tissues were so weak that they might as well be nonexistent at this point. Those were evidence of the erectile function being lost a long time ago.

At this rate, Cyclic GMP would never be activated by the nitric oxide secreted by the corpus cavernosum's epidermis and the ends of the penile nerve tissues.

And when Cyclic GMP was not activated, the veins would not be closed off, either. In other words, the penis would remain limp as a bull's saggy balls in the middle of a hot Summer regardless of the stimulus received. In medical terms, it'd be organic impotence. With that, the sole remaining suspicion in Mu Ssang's mind completely vanished.

"If you say so, then it must be true, uncle. You've always stood behind your words, after all."

Mu Ssang sounded indifferent, but his expression was noticeably brighter. The seasoned Bak In-bo obviously wouldn't miss the change in his nephew.

It's done! He finally managed to earn forgiveness for his sin. Adam could not fool God, but he was not Adam, and Mu Ssang was not God.

"Ku-hahaha!"

A burst of laughter broke out of Bak In-bo's mouth all on its own. If his nephew insisted on getting an examination, he probably would've felt a bit sad about it. That's why he wanted to bear-hug Mu Ssang for believing him so quickly. This kid sharing his blood was indeed a generous, forgiving man.

"You're right, nephew. I might have lied often and done many cowardly things in my life, but I've never broken a promise. So, now that we've more or less managed to clear the air, can I ask you for two favors?"

"Favors? Please don't. Uncle, you and I are not close enough to listen to one's favors. It's already a minor miracle that blood hasn't started flowing yet." Mu Ssang flatly rejected him while leaning back.

"Kekeke, aren't you a rather cold-hearted one!"

Despite the icy retaliation, Bak In-bo didn't back down an inch.

Now that the familial relationship has been re-established, the ball is back in his court. No matter how incredible and successful Mu Ssang was, Bak In-bo would always be his uncle. Mu Ssang would always remain as just a nephew, much lower in the family pecking order.

This was the truth of the world that could never drastically change in a flash.