Urban Vagabond: Reload

Talismans flew at me from all directions, and the rampaging evil spirits rushed in, spewing ghostly wails that gnawed at my mind.

Screeeeeeeeech—!

The pain-insensitive lost-soul thralls charged, treating their lives like nothing, and behind them Ghostshade House Master aimed his gun and shrieked at the Ghostshade House disciples.

“Kill him—!”

It was chaos, a scene out of a full-blown melee. Dozens of murderous intents were converging on me alone, all trying to tear me apart. My skin prickled.

Contrary to what I’d expected when I first came to Ghostshade House, I was up against more than I could comfortably handle alone.

But my eyes as I swept my surroundings were calm, settled. Completely separate from the way my heart was heating up with anger.

Since when have I ever only picked safe fights.

I dodged the talismans flying like throwing knives and knocked the butcher’s-knife swing of a charging lost-soul thrall’s blade up and away.

CLANG!

I drew a straight line with my sword through the opening that immediately appeared.

While one went down, spraying blood from his neck, two more were already right on top of me. One with an axe, one with a hammer—both rushing in to smash and crush my body in an instant.

Left first.

I twisted my body on instinct. The axe edge grazed my spine, but before I even had time to feel the sting, my sword had already taken the hammer guy’s head off.

SPLAAASH!

A fountain of blood sprayed into the air. I immediately turned and rammed my blade into the side of the lumberjack who’d stumbled after missing his swing, then tore it free, only for more enemies to come crowding in with metal raised.

Left. Back, low. Right. Back again.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

The sharp pain along my spine jolted and widened senses that had dulled during my peaceful daily life.

A rush I couldn’t put into words.

My field of view opened wide, and the stench of my enemies’ blood became sharp. In between that, I could pick out the smell of metal, and the tactile feel of cutting an enemy grew so sensitive it gave me goosebumps.

I can see it.

The moving trajectories of the metal coming at me showed up as points and lines. And I instinctively understood how to slip between them.

BANG! BANG BANG BANG!

Even the bullets couldn’t escape that sense. Every time Ghostshade House Master fired, it was only the lost-soul thralls whose bodies sprouted holes. But when he shook his bell-tipped staff furiously, the staggering thralls got back up and rushed in again.

Unless you took their heads or blew out their hearts, lost-soul thralls didn’t go down easily.

Then I just cut them down until they stay down.

Looking back, every time I’d taken risks in a fight, I’d grown stronger. The bets where I staked my life instead of chips always paid out in results I was satisfied with.

“You lot, get in there too!”

Apparently deciding the lost-soul thralls weren’t enough, the Ghostshade House disciples who’d been just throwing talismans from the back grabbed sharp, narrow thrusting swords and came stabbing in.

With their pale faces and stick-thin bodies, I’d figured they only knew sorcery—but these ones were the ones who moved like properly trained killers.

Let’s try drawing up some inner qi.

I stirred faint inner qi in my dantian. Power spread through the meridians of my whole body, and my physical ability kicked up another notch.

THUD!

I stomped forward with a full-power step, shaking the floor, and the trajectory of the thrusting swords coming at me wobbled. I slipped past by a hair’s breadth and dove into the middle of the enemies.

SHRRAAANK!

One swing, and three necks went flying. The Ghostshade House disciples recoiled in fear, stumbling back.

They stared at me with eyes full of terror, and honestly, I was just as surprised as they were.

Is this for real?

I hadn’t learned any proper inner cultivation method, and yet the circulation of qi was twice as fast and intense as when I’d used an artificial dantian.

My first impression of drawing on my qi at full power was... less moving than it was absurd.

How much stronger am I gonna get once I start learning a real inner cultivation method?

Just how much of a cheat have people with proper dantians been living on?

“Ha ha ha...!”

When I suddenly burst out laughing like a madman, the Ghostshade House disciples went white and scrambled backward.

Then from behind them, Ghostshade House Master waved his pistol and bell-tipped staff threateningly, screaming himself hoarse.

“What are you idiots doing! If you don’t kill him here, you’re dead anyway!”

But every time the gunshot rang out, it was lost-soul thralls and Ghostshade House disciples that went down.

Not that I was unharmed either. Strikes I couldn’t quite dodge scraped my skin, and talismans stuck to my body.

Kyaaaaaaah—!

The evil spirits kept blocking my vision, clouding my mind. Every time they did, I bit my lip and swallowed my own blood.

At some point, I stopped feeling pain.

Just a little more.

For the first time since regression, I was in a real fight where my life was on the line, and I was repeatedly smashing through the limits of my body.

My hypersensitive senses and fully-heightened mind were dragging me into a new territory.

I fought on like that, mind blank with focus, until at some point there was nothing left to cut.

Screeeeeeech—!

When the last evil spirit Ghostshade House Master was controlling let out a ripping scream and scattered into the air, I was the only thing left standing on the ground.

“Ptoo.”

I spat out the blood pooled in my mouth and roughly ripped the talismans off my body with my hands.

They were talismans laced with curses and killing intent and the like, but to a trained martial artist, all they really did was dull your body a little.

“No more? Feels like if I just keep going a bit more, I’ll catch something new....”

I turned with thick regret in my voice to look back, and the only survivor—Ghostshade House Master—was retreating, step by step.

“Sp-spare me, please, just my life....”

His wild hair had gone completely white.

It was the backlash from overusing ghosts and sorcery.

“If you spare me, I’ll give you proof! Proof that the one who contacted me was Great Heaven Gate! I’ll give you that, so please....”

I strode forward and drove my sword into the chest of the trembling Ghostshade House Master.

Thuck.

“No need. It’s not that urgent. Knowing who it was is enough.”

“You...!”

Ghostshade House Master tried to curse me, then coughed blood and crumpled.

I took his bell-tipped staff, the smartphone from inside his clothes, and a few talismans, stuffing them into my bag.

I planned to stop by Bokja’s workshop later and drop off the staff and talismans.

“So the basement’s that way.”

After I gave the exterminated vermin one last look-over, I put my goggles and mask back on and headed for the basement.

******

In the cold basement.

Kids who looked around ten years old sat huddled in a corner, their arms and legs tied with cable ties.

“Help us....”

“I’m hungry....”

“Mom....”

There were three of them, barely managing to force out a voice.

They were filthy, in dirty clothes, with dried tear tracks on their gaunt cheeks—like they hadn’t been properly washed or fed.

As I came down into the basement, I lightly knocked my foot against the floor so they wouldn’t be startled.

Thump, thump.

“Wh-who’s there?”

The frightened kids lifted their heads and looked at me.

Showing up looking like a freak in red goggles and a mask, I tried my best to talk as gently as possible.

“Shh. I’m here to take you out, so cooperate and stay quiet.”

“P-please save us!”

“I’m scared....”

“Mom, Mooooom....”

The way they started bawling fat tears in sheer terror, completely unlike what I’d imagined, threw me for a second, but I kept my tone as calm as I could and tried to talk them down.

“If you keep crying, I can’t take you out. Don’t you want to see your parents?”

At that, the little ones clenched their lips and abruptly cut off their tears. Smart kids.

“A-are you really here to rescue us?”

“Yeah. One at a time, tell me your name and age.”

“K-Kim Sua... I’m ten.”

“Park Jihun. Eleven!”

“Choi Jinwoo, nine...”

Luckily, it didn’t seem like the Ghostshade House bastards had drugged them or stuck evil spirits on them.

I cut the cable ties binding their hands and feet and checked to see if they were hurt anywhere.

They were scrawny from not eating or resting properly, but none of them were injured badly enough to need immediate treatment.

“Who can walk on their own?”

Their bodies had gone stiff from being trapped in a cold place, so they couldn’t move properly and staggered when they tried.

“No helping it, then. All right, come here.”

“Eek...!”

“Let go! Let me go!”

In the end, I slung one onto my back and scooped the other two up under my arms.

Climbing the stairs up to the ground floor, I warned the terrified kids.

“Close your eyes for a bit. Until I say you can open them.”

“O-okay....”

“Please save us....”

“If you cooperate nicely, I’ll get you back home to your parents in one piece.”

I led the kids out of Ghostshade House, making sure not to step on any corpses, while they squeezed their eyes shut.

“Okay, you can open them now.”

“I-it’s outside!”

“Huuuuh....”

Once we were out on the street, I had them call home using Ghostshade House Master’s smartphone that I’d grabbed in advance.

“Who knows their mom or dad’s phone number?”

“I do!”

Only one of the three raised a hand.

I handed the smartphone to the sharp kid and, for the other two who were looking glum, I reached out and ruffled their hair.

“If you call the police, they’ll get you back to your parents fast.”

“Mom! Mom! It’s me, Sua! I’m here....”

“Let me talk to your mom for a second.”

I altered my voice and spoke with Jinwoo’s mother, gave her a nearby address, then called the police too.

The kids’ expressions brightened noticeably, and they bowed their heads to me.

“Thank you, mister....”

“I thought you were a bad guy at first.”

“I thought you were going to sell us....”

...So it was the goggles and mask, huh?

I stayed with them until the police arrived, hanging out next to them.

Not that I had anything in particular to say to kids, so all that came out were the usual clichés.

“From now on, listen to your parents, don’t follow strangers, don’t just eat whatever someone gives you because it looks tasty, and... what else. Don’t wait until it’s too late to be good to your folks. Got it?”

“Yes!”

Even at my old-man nagging, the little ones nodded their heads earnestly. I patted them on the head a few more times and got to my feet.

In the distance, a police car was roaring up with sirens and lights blazing.

“I’m heading out. Stay put here and go with the police officers when they get here.”

Whoooosh!

I sprang up, ran up the wall of a nearby building, and vaulted onto the roof. The plan was to hide before the police car arrived.

That was when I heard the kids’ voices behind me.

“Thank you, mister hero!”

“We’ll definitely repay this someday!”

“Thank youuu!”

Heh.

“I just did it so I could sleep at night. ‘Hero,’ my ass.”

The kids couldn’t see me anymore, but they were still waving for all they were worth.

Seeing their faces brightened like that made me feel lighter, and finally, all the tension drained away.

“Ugh. My whole body aches.”

I plopped down any old way on the rooftop of a building where I could see them clearly.

As I slathered the gold-grade wound salve I’d gotten as a gift from the competition judges all over my body, I watched the kids climb into the police car and ride off.

“Go safe, all of you. And don’t scare your parents like this ever again....”

Then I happened to catch my reflection in the glass of the next building over, and I looked like a disaster.

My clothes were shredded to where it was hard to find a piece that was intact, and they were soaked in blood.

“...So what do I do about this?”

If I walked into the house like this, my father would faint, and my mother would go to call the police first thing.

At this point, it wasn’t the kids I had to worry about, it was myself.

“Screw it, whatever.”

I sprawled out flat and stared up at the city night sky where only the moon hung, waiting for my wounds to heal at least a little before heading home.

And once I lay there doing nothing, little chuckles kept slipping out.

“Tired as hell... but I guess this is what the life of a righteous-path martial artist is like.”

My body might have been wrecked, but what I’d gained far outweighed my injuries—a day that left both body and mind fully satisfied.