Urban Vagabond: Reload

In his first life, Kim Muhyuk wasn’t called The Lone Ghost from the beginning.

-You said you were a rookie, but you weren’t bad.

-Your swordsmanship is a total ghost. A ghost. Give it a few years and they’ll be calling you the Sword Ghost.

-Not that anyone around here survives those “few years.”

-Don’t say shit like that... Anyway, let’s get along. I can call you my one-eyed little brother, right?

Even in the world of rough vagabonds, there was a kind of warmth.

If you’d washed up in the underworld, you were bound to be carrying at least one brutal story. And after you finished a job together, if you happened to share a drink, it wasn’t rare to start calling each other brother.

Even if, a few days later, you’d end up hearing your “brother” was dead.

-...Go by yourself.

-Haha. We’re screwed either way. You go, at least.

-Boss! If you live, you have to avenge us!

Kim Muhyuk might’ve avoided dirty work, but he didn’t avoid dangerous work.

He couldn’t become the righteous, upright wandering hero he’d dreamed about as a kid—but he still wanted to live as a martial artist.

He looked like he lived however he pleased, but the fire inside him had never gone out.

I want to get stronger. I want to prove that even with an artificial dantian, you can get as strong as you want.

The battlefield was his teacher. The scars on his body were his realizations.

In a vagabond world where almost nobody survived “a few years,” Kim Muhyuk slowly became a legend.

Each time he came back alive from missions everyone said were impossible—alone—his name spread on its own, and before he knew it, people started calling him The Lone Ghost.

-...They say he crawled back again, half-dead. That’s vicious. Really vicious.

-I heard he used his own people as shields and slipped out alone...

-They say he kills everyone so he doesn’t have to split the pay.

A ghost who took any job and always came back alive, even alone.

Which, said another way, meant that most people who went with Kim Muhyuk never came back.

They were only that good. Barely strong enough to protect their own bodies.

The few friends he’d had used to joke that he was cursed with bad luck—but those bastards all died in the end, too.

Naturally, Kim Muhyuk started working alone.

He stopped making friends, and as his skill rose, the dangerous jobs only increased.

...No matter what it takes, come back alive.

That was the vow The Lone Ghost Kim Muhyuk made every time he went out.

At first, it was because he wanted to survive.

Later, it was because he wanted to prove himself.

But now—

“I’m the type who gets lonely pretty easily. I don’t really like going around alone.”

So he wouldn’t have to return alone anymore, Kim Muhyuk decided to fight as The Lone Ghost for a while.

“A moving display of friendship. The Yin-Extreme body picked a partner really well, didn’t it?”

The assassins’ leader clicked his tongue and stepped forward.

His eyes flicked over the assassins sprawled dead on the ground—especially the one spellcaster they’d had—and a troubled look crossed his face.

“...You shouldn’t think you’re going to die peacefully.”

He ground his teeth, and a horrifying killing intent began to pour out of him.

“Y-You—what the hell are you doing?!”

Yang Hayun stared at Kim Muhyuk, shocked.

At some point, that broad back had come back in front of her.

Truthfully, she’d been half giving up.

No matter what she did, she couldn’t see a way to break out alone.

If people found out she’d been kidnapped, she believed her master would come for her—but before that, she also thought they might kill her the moment she stopped being useful.

“Just tell my master already!”

Her eyes stung like she was about to cry, and she took it out on him instead.

Kim Muhyuk glanced back at her, then gave a smile that was hard to read.

“Have you ever fought with the resolve to die?”

“I’m going to, starting now!”

Yang Hayun shouted, pressing her back against his.

As if he liked that answer, Kim Muhyuk nodded.

Then he provoked the assassins tightening the encirclement—and their leader behind them.

“What, you’re not coming? The longer this drags out, the more impatient you’ll be.”

“...Erase him.”

At the leader’s cold order, the assassins rushed in to kill Kim Muhyuk.

Daggers and thrown weapons flew in, and they scattered sleeping powder.

Krrrriiiick—!

Yang Hayun opened her Yin-Extreme qi at full power. Moisture in the air froze, warping the trajectories of daggers and thrown weapons, and the sleeping powder froze and fell to the ground.

Now that I see it, this is martial arts optimized for defense.

When she was suppressing her Yin-Extreme qi, Yang Hayun’s speech was sluggish and her movements were slow—but when she unleashed her martial arts freely, she was like a different person, her mind fast and her judgment sharp.

“Use me like a shield! They said they’d take me alive, so they can’t use killing moves [N O V E L I G H T] recklessly!”

Kim Muhyuk agreed. Back-to-back, he spoke to her.

“Then your body. I’m going to use it a bit?”

In an instant, Yang Hayun’s face flushed bright red. Of course he didn’t mean anything weird—but for a split second, it sounded like he might.

“Do whatever you want, you idiot!”

“...?”

Does opening Yin-Extreme qi make her personality nasty, too?

The thought flashed through him, but he shoved it aside and grabbed Yang Hayun’s shoulder, turning her to the left.

“Left!”

As they swapped positions, an assassin charging with a sword twisted his line in a hurry. Kim Muhyuk knocked the noticeably slower strike upward.

CLANG!

The blade flew back and the assassin’s balance wavered. Kim Muhyuk didn’t miss the gap and stepped in.

THUD!

Without overdoing it, he stabbed into the thigh, then immediately retreated. At that exact moment, another assassin’s thrown dagger cut through the space where Kim Muhyuk had been.

“Right!”

With the shout, the two of them rotated to the right while staying back-to-back.

Thrown-weapon assassins hesitated at the sudden change in height and angle, and Yang Hayun drove forward with both palms, packing Yin-Extreme qi into them.

WHOOOM-WHOOOM-WHOOOM-WHOOOM-WHOOOM!

It was Yin-Extreme qi she’d never poured out this freely before. A pure-white vortex froze the air as it blasted straight ahead.

Kim Muhyuk twitched the frost-covered eyebrows that had turned white and said, “Lift it for a second.”

“What? Eek!”

Yang Hayun’s feet left the ground. Kim Muhyuk hoisted her up with one arm and charged the enemy, and Yang Hayun swung her palms wildly.

“Diiie—!”

At that reckless rush, the assassins scattered left and right.

Confusion flickered in eyes trained to suppress emotion.

Because Kim Muhyuk whipping Yang Hayun around like a hostage—and Yang Hayun fighting in sync with it—both looked completely insane.

“...So we picked a lunatic to mess with.”

The assassins’ leader watched with a bitter smile.

Yang Hayun, a first-rate constitution with a Yin-Extreme body.

And Kim Muhyuk, who’d shown from the very first license exam that he wasn’t ordinary.

The moment the two decided to fight as a real team, even a trained group of assassins couldn’t approach carelessly.

I expected the Yin-Extreme body to be troublesome... but I didn’t expect the other one to be harder to deal with.

Frost had formed all over Kim Muhyuk’s body as he endured Yin-Extreme qi from point-blank range.

It had to be agonizing—yet he didn’t so much as twitch an eyebrow.

No matter how thick his clothes were, no matter how he protected himself with inner power, it shouldn’t be something he could endure.

Then the assassins’ leader let out a cruel laugh and instructed his men.

“Put as many shallow cuts as you can on that partner’s body. Let Yin-Extreme qi seep in so the wounds can necrotize.”

The one shocked by that wasn’t Kim Muhyuk—it was Yang Hayun.

“Y-You cowardly bastards!”

“Don’t hold back because of me. That’s what he wants.”

“...Are you okay?”

“I’m not okay. That’s why we have to finish this as fast as possible and rest!”

Kim Muhyuk’s eyes flared viciously as he slashed fiercely at the assassins. Yang Hayun clenched her lips and poured out Yin-Extreme qi.

But the assassins responded defensively, carving countless wounds into Kim Muhyuk’s body—and each time Yin-Extreme qi seeped into those cuts, Kim Muhyuk felt pain that froze straight down to his bones.

“Ghk....”

Even if he survived their hands by luck, Yin-Extreme qi could soak into his marrow and organs and ruin him.

Even so, Kim Muhyuk didn’t separate from Yang Hayun. Back-to-back, moving like a single body, they blocked the assassins’ attacks—sometimes using each other as shields to escape danger.

The assassins’ numbers dropped one by one. Seven became five, then three, then finally only two remained.

But that was only counting everyone except the leader, who still hadn’t stepped in.

“Hooo....”

Each time he breathed, white vapor spilled from his mouth. Yin-Extreme qi that had dug into his bones was making it hard to breathe.

Each time he breathed, white vapor spilled from his mouth. Yin-Extreme qi that had dug into his bones was making it hard to breathe.

He could feel Yang Hayun hesitating behind him, but Kim Muhyuk only patted her shoulder as if to tell her to focus.

Is he waiting for us to tire out?

Still watching the assassins’ leader, who refused to truly move, Kim Muhyuk spoke.

“...Your men are dying. Is the leader just going to watch?”

“A competent assassin waits for one perfect opportunity.”

It was hard to tell whether that lazy answer was true composure born of confidence, or just bluster. Kim Muhyuk wiped the frozen blood from his lips with the back of his hand.

“The longer you stall, the worse it’ll be for you.”

“There’s a saying about going the long way when you’re in a hurry. Though I suppose it’s about to get inconvenient....”

The assassins’ leader glanced up at the sky once, then stepped forward.

“...!”

“...!”

That was all it took. The pressure alone forced both Kim Muhyuk and Yang Hayun to push their senses to the limit.

Ch-ch-ch...!

Kim Muhyuk’s body, constantly exposed to Yin-Extreme qi, trembled like a leaf.

Hah... hahhh....

Yang Hayun’s breathing had turned ragged too—she’d never kept pouring out Yin-Extreme qi without pause like this. They both looked like they were at their limits.

“You.”

As the opponent approached with eyes like he was about to play with a toy, Kim Muhyuk pulled out the trump card he’d been saving.

“You’re Black-White, aren’t you?”

The opponent didn’t react—but Kim Muhyuk felt the two assassins at his left and right flinch.

They were highly trained, so it was tiny—so small he wouldn’t have noticed if he weren’t Kim Muhyuk.

But after confirming it, a satisfied smile formed at the corner of his mouth.

“Black-White 13. That was the number of the examiner assigned to me in the third-rate license exam. You liked me a lot, didn’t you? Talking about ‘same kind’ and acting friendly and all that.”

“.......”

“I don’t know what you really are... but someone in the Martial Alliance will. Whether you’re a traitor, or whether you killed someone and secretly put on that mask.”

Kim Muhyuk grinned, and the opponent’s hand went to the sword at his waist.

Kim Muhyuk thought Black-White 13 would attack to shut his mouth.

An attack fueled by panic and rage would create openings that didn’t suit an assassin—and if it was that level, it was worth gambling on the move he’d saved.

“...Looks like I have no choice but to kill you.”

The moment the opponent spoke calmly while staring at his own sword, Kim Muhyuk’s gaze sank cold—

FWASH!

Blood sprayed from the throats of the assassins standing to Black-White 13’s left and right.

“W-What...? His own side—?!”

Yang Hayun’s mouth fell open at the unimaginable scene.

The collapsing subordinates stared at their leader with bewildered eyes, but he didn’t spare the dead men even a glance. He only looked at Kim Muhyuk.

“Haha. My identity is classified—even my subordinates aren’t allowed to know it.”

He spoke with a bright smile, and the way he talked returned to the exact tone of the examiner Kim Muhyuk had been with during the third-rate license exam.