Urban Vagabond: Reload

Han Jaechun came down onto the deck, saw Lee Taehyun collapsed on the floor, and asked me,

“......Did you kill him?”

With a pale face, bleeding as he lay there, he looked like a corpse—so much so it wouldn’t have been strange at all.

“I didn’t kill him. He’s a valuable witness. I’m taking him alive to the Martial Alliance.”

I answered as I wiped the blood running at the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand. I’d won, but I was drenched in blood too.

Most of it was blood I’d gotten on me while brawling with over a dozen Black Heaven Society elite martial artists, but I had plenty of wounds of my own as well.

“Well, I can’t say it’s better than being dead.”

But instead of checking my own injuries, I pulled out handcuffs and a gag from inside my clothes.

It was to make sure he couldn’t try anything even if he came to.

That was when Han Jaechun walked over and snatched the restraints out of my hands.

“Put some medicine on, fast. I’ll clean up.”

“Having an assistant really is convenient.”

I let out a short laugh, finally dropped down onto the deck any which way, pulled out hemostatic powder, and applied it to my body.

While I did that, Han Jaechun pulled Lee Taehyun’s arms behind his back, cuffed him, carefully checked inside his mouth for anything hidden, then stuffed the gag in as well.

It was clean work—clean enough that even I watched and felt impressed.

“You’re good. Did you learn that somewhere?”

“I can’t properly press pressure points, so I have to be good at something like this. Check it again later.”

“There’s no need. He’s no different from a normal person without internal energy now.”

Phantom Dream had pierced his lower abdomen. His internal energy would have scattered into pieces, and in that condition, there was no way he could even break handcuffs.

‘And I can’t feel any energy from the spellcraft tools he used. That means.......’

WHUMMM!

Phantom Dream, lying beside me, made its red blade shudder violently.

When its edge had dug into his abdomen, I’d felt Phantom Dream suck up his blood—and absorb a different kind of energy too.

I lightly swept my fingers along its blade and asked in a whisper,

“You ate it, didn’t you?”

Tasty! Moremoremoremoremore!

Phantom Dream threw a tantrum, saying it was still hungry.

Even after eating the delicacy of a spellcaster and spellcraft tools, it acted like it wasn’t enough—an image flashed in my head of a boy drooling at the corners of his mouth.

I patted Phantom Dream to calm it.

“That’s enough for today. I’ll give you something even tastier later.”

Really? Promise!

It’s a promise!

Han Jaechun flinched at the sight of me muttering back and forth with a sword. He didn’t know anything about Phantom Dream—he’d seen it for the first time today.

“Ahem. Then I’ll get rid of this and go check the engine room one more time.”

I nodded and watched Lee Taehyun get hauled off to the side like luggage.

‘He’s finished—as a martial artist and as a spellcaster.’

I knew exactly what the downfall of powerless villains looked like.

Even if Lee Taehyun miraculously got free, the grudges piled up against him wouldn’t leave him alone.

‘He’d be better off begging to stay locked up in prison.’

Of course, I didn’t feel the slightest guilt about making him that way.

Because I knew what the Five Great Unorthodox Sects were like.

If some of the Eight Great Sects were hypocrites who did filthy things behind the scenes, the Five Great Unorthodox Sects were a den of villains who committed crimes out in the open.

‘And they were the first to kneel to the Heavenly Demon Cult and turn the country into a wreck.’

Trash that needed to be cleared out someday.

Unlike the Eight Great Sects, the Five Great Unorthodox Sects didn’t even have room for redemption.

Starting with the Black Heaven Society and wiping them out one by one...... that didn’t sound so bad.

While I sank into those thoughts, Han Jaechun came back carrying a backpack, like he’d found it somewhere.

“What’s all that?”

“I grabbed some spoils. We don’t have to hand over every last thing to the Coast Guard.”

When he cracked the bag open a little, waterproof-wrapped bundles of cash and jewelry glittered inside.

And he hadn’t only brought back spoils.

“I found every CCTV camera on the boat and smashed them all. And I knocked out the sailors hiding in the engine room too. I checked multiple times, so you don’t have to worry.”

“At this rate, I’ve got nothing to do.”

Satisfied with my assistant’s clean work, I nodded with a pleased expression.

Han Jaechun still had a long way to go as a martial artist, but as a drifter, he definitely had talent.

Unlike sect-affiliated martial artists who could solve most problems with force, freelance drifters needed caution and survival sense as essentials.

“So the only two people awake on this boat are us. Then I can take this off now.”

Lying spread-eagle on the deck, I tore at my own skin like it was suffocating.

ZZZIIING—.

From the start, I’d been wearing two human-skin masks.

Even if a hatred-soaked Lee Taehyun remembered my face and reported it to the Black Heaven Society higher-ups, he’d end up giving them a ridiculous sketch.

“......Compared to you, I’m still nowhere close.”

Han Jaechun shook his head and plopped down across from me.

I’d felt it when we cleaned out the Three Evils Society together too—sometimes I looked like I was charging in blindly, but when you looked closely, I was the type who planned everything and moved with precision.

Han Jaechun had done the cleanup, grabbed spoils, and smashed the CCTV because he remembered things I’d said in passing.

When I was teaching martial arts and we took short breaks, or when we talked about everyday things, I’d casually let slip little stories from my “experience.”

Some drifter handled a crisis like this with quick thinking.

When you gather spoils and erase traces, this method is good.

Someone broke through an encirclement using that method.

‘I always phrased it like I’d just heard rumors somewhere...... but it was vivid, like I’d lived it.’

And then there was the operational ability I’d shown today.

It was like a textbook demonstration of what a seasoned drifter looked like in action.

‘Kim Muhyuk. What the hell are you, really?’

Han Jaechun was curious, but he decided he wouldn’t ask.

Because I wouldn’t tell him anyway.

What mattered was that he was sure—just watching me and learning would be enough to make him the best drifter in the business.

That was when, still lying on the deck, I stared up at the night sky and said,

“Whew— lying like this makes me think of cigarettes.”

He’d never seen me smoke, but Han Jaechun just accepted it.

It wasn’t even the first or second time he’d seen me change—speech and expression—whenever the underworld got involved.

“If we rummage around the boat, there’ll probably be some. Want me to bring you one?”

“......No. It’s just bad for you. Don’t smoke either, Han.”

“I’m a non-smoker to begin with.”

I smacked my lips like I was craving one, but then I switched topics fast.

“Anyway, good work, Han. You did more than I expected.”

“What....... Looking at it, you would’ve been fine even alone.”

Of course, the operation would’ve succeeded even if it was just me.

But if Han Jaechun hadn’t taken the bridge and subdued the machine gunner, I would’ve fought a much harder battle.

I sat up and showed him the wound where a bullet had grazed me.

“It was easy because of you. If you weren’t here, I’d have a few more ventilation holes.”

At that praise from his drifter master, Han Jaechun couldn’t hide the grin stretching across his face.

“Yeah? Then I guess I’ll get chewed out less by the bosses.”

“When we get back, I’ll buy you something good.”

We looked at each other and grinned. Then we lightly bumped fists.

After the scene was cleaned up, I fired a signal flare into the sky.

PBBRBRBRBRBOOM—!

Soon, the Coast Guard and the Martial Alliance forces that had arrested the smugglers would arrive.

“Let’s get out.”

We found a rubber boat on the speedboat, lowered it into the sea, then climbed in.

It was an operation carried out under a Martial Alliance request, but there was no need to expose our identities to the Coast Guard too.

It could also cause trouble with the spoils, so the plan was to leave only the evidence tied to smuggling on the boat and slip away quietly.

“Ah. I forgot to leave this behind.”

Han Jaechun pulled out the ledger he’d been keeping inside his clothes and spoke. When I looked at him with curiosity, he explained.

“I found it in the engine room. It had stuff like buyers written down.”

“Give it to me. I’ll put it back and come.”

I took the ledger from Han Jaechun and sprang up onto the boat.

Then, as I headed toward the bridge, I flipped through the smuggling ledger. It was a habit I’d picked up as a drifter—always checking everything thoroughly.

“I recognize a few names too. It’d be nice if we used this chance to catch them all and throw them in a cell......”

The ledger listed the sellers’ names and contact information, and next to those, the items.

If I had to guess, it was a roster of big-spenders tied to the smuggling.

As I kept flipping through it, my eyes stopped on one name.

My feet stopped too, like I’d been nailed to the deck.

“Shin...... Junhyun?”

It was the name of Shin Kangheon’s uncle—his only family.

*****

“This concludes the probationary training for new alliance members. Starting today, rest until the weekend, then return to your respective assignments and devote yourselves to revealing the world’s justice as proud members of the Martial Alliance!”

The moment the instructor finished speaking, the new alliance members replied in one thunderous voice.

“Yes—!”

At the very front, Shin Kangheon—who stood half a head taller than even the sturdy martial artists around him—answered louder than anyone.

The alliance members beside him felt their ears go numb from that voice.

Even the tiger-like Martial Alliance instructor looked satisfied at the sight, then said what everyone wanted to hear most.

“Dismissed!”

“Dismissed—!”

As the new alliance members scattered at the speed of light, freed from the hellish days of group training, Shin Kangheon walked up to the instructor.

The instructor asked with a puzzled expression.

“Alliance member Shin Kangheon. Do you have something you’re curious about?”

“Yes! I was wondering if I can start work immediately today!”

“......There’s no problem with that. But aren’t you tired?”

The Martial Alliance’s one-week live-in training for new alliance members was never easy.

Ever since Sword Demon Choi Geon had built the curriculum in the past, everyone who went through it said it was hell and shuddered.

When one hundred new members joined the Martial Alliance, two or three of them quit and left.

It was training that pushed stamina and mental strength to the limit......

“My body feels itchy. And I want to go greet the White Tiger Unit seniors as soon as possible too......”

Shin Kangheon said as he scratched his cheek with thick fingers.

Even the instructor team—called tigers of the Martial Alliance—shook their heads at that monstrous stamina.

“Hah. In ten years as a Martial Alliance instructor, you’re the first one like you.”

Shin Kangheon hadn’t complained once during that hellish new-member training. He always stepped forward first, took the lead, and naturally earned the best results in every evaluation.

The instructor had seen him “persuade” lagging teammates with strength and drag them along at times...... but he didn’t see that as purely negative.

“You said you’re going to the White Tiger Unit, right? Because it’s where your father was?”

“Yes.”

At Shin Kangheon’s serious nod, the instructor smiled for the first time and offered a blessing.

“You really resemble your father. Your leadership is a bit...... aggressive, is all. I wish you success.”

At the words that he resembled his father, a bright smile bloomed across Shin Kangheon’s face.

“Thank you!”

After greeting the instructor, Shin Kangheon headed for the White Tiger Unit building with an excited heart.

‘The place my father was.’

Shin Kangheon’s father, Shin Jaehyun, was someone who had served as deputy commander of the Martial Alliance White Tiger Unit.

Choi Geon said he’d been an excellent martial artist who set an example for others, and Martial Alliance Leader Yeo Pilgeuk said he’d been a heroic swordsman.

It was a story he’d never once heard from his uncle.

Whenever the topic of his parents came up, his uncle’s face would harden and he’d change the subject.

‘I want to know more.’

Shin Kangheon was curious what kind of person his father had been. He was curious about his mother too.

Now that he’d joined the Martial Alliance, he’d surely be able to learn more details. There would be people in the Martial Alliance who had known them.

But even if it weren’t because of his parents, Shin Kangheon thought he would’ve applied to the Martial Alliance anyway.

“Hello! I’m new alliance member Shin Kangheon of the White Tiger Unit! I look forward to working with you!”

The moment he arrived in front of the White Tiger Unit building, he gave a booming greeting while making a fist-palm salute, and he felt martial artists passing by turn to look at him.

Shin Kangheon flashed them a grin and went inside.

‘If I show up tonight wearing a White Tiger Unit uniform, everyone will be shocked, right?’

After work, he planned to head straight to .

Just imagining Kim Muhyuk, Kim Bokja, and the older man and woman being surprised to see him show up as a Martial Alliance member already made him feel good.

They’d definitely celebrate like it was their own business.

‘......Uncle won’t like it much, though.’

Thinking of his uncle, who would soon return from an overseas business trip, made his chest feel a little tight, but Shin Kangheon believed that in the end, his uncle would understand his choice and support him.