Black Dragon Society (3)
Heinz looked at his opponent with a cold, heavy gaze.
Just that was enough to make the whole world feel like it had turned against him, weighing heavily on that one spot.
Yet even in that pressure, which would have made most ordinary people freeze, the old man was still stroking his beard with a face full of amusement.
‘He used to be the head of the Buncheon Society?’
Heinz’s eyebrows twitched.
Surely, that was astonishing news.
Even someone like him, who had thought of various possibilities, was caught completely off guard.
But the biggest question right now wasn’t the content itself.
‘Why is he telling me this?’
That was something even Heuk-Young had not heard, despite having squeezed information out of him.
It must have been a secret that, just as the person involved had said, no one else knew—something only he himself was aware of.
To casually share such information with Heinz, someone he had never met before… no, to an intruder who had broken into his organization, was an action that was difficult to comprehend.
“What on earth are you thinking?”
Heinz did not try to hide his doubts.
Anyway, the current situation was already absolutely favorable for him.
There was no need to read the other party’s mind to dig out the truth.
If necessary, he could always force it out with power.
“Not particularly anything special. I just thought it would be good for comrades with the same goal to have an open conversation.”
“Same goal…?”
“To bring down the Buncheon Society. Isn’t that what you desire?”
The head of the Black Dragon Society looked at Heinz with piercing eyes.
Within his black pupils, dark energy was rippling.
“—At the Masquerade.”
Hmm.
Heinz tilted his head.
It wasn’t surprising that the other party knew that name.
Although the Masquerade had only recently begun its activities, stories would inevitably spread when there were numerous witnesses.
There was no intention to hide the name to begin with.
“I can’t believe it.”
The concern lay elsewhere.
“First, you launch an attack, and now you call yourself a comrade with the same goals…? It looks like you’re just making excuses to escape the situation.”
It was a matter of trust.
Even though they were peacefully conversing now, this was no place created to deepen friendships.
This was a place meant to punish an invader who had barged into his home and wreaked havoc.
“Hmm, I apologize for that. However, we also had no choice.”
“No choice?”
“How much do you know about the Buncheon Society’s Oracle?”
“Oracle? Are you referring to the Oracle?”
Hmm, Heinz frowned.
He wondered what kind of excuse was coming but suddenly got thrown a curveball.
“Her prophecy isn’t merely about glimpsing fragments of the future. It’s closer to reading the flow that penetrates through the past, present, and future, along with the thoughts humans unconsciously emit, predicting destiny.”
Sensing the cold atmosphere, the head of the Black Dragon Society immediately began to explain.
“The influence it bears extends across the entire Earth. Moreover, the moment someone clearly utters the specific word that refers to her, she will immediately become aware and turn into a target. Of course, there are various abilities in the world that can circumvent that, but…”
He glanced at Heinz and at the strange energy surrounding him, suggesting that it would be best to leave behind as few traces as possible.
“Yet it’s the first time I’ve seen such a lack of reaction. It feels like instead of blocking her from being tracked by some method, it’s as if you didn’t even register her to begin with.”
Shaking his head lightly, he continued his previous line of thought.
Why the Black Dragon Society had to resort to such complicated measures.
“Unfortunately, our Black Dragon Society doesn’t possess abilities like yours. Despite the fact that her vigilance must have shot up to the max due to your group’s actions in Southeast Asia, attempting to make contact with the intention of cooperating with the Blood Alliance in this situation would…”
Just by taking that action, the risk of being detected would increase dramatically.
Thus, the executor, Heuk-Young, hadn’t brought up any related topics from the beginning.
Ultimately, that uproar was merely a strategy to contact him while avoiding surveillance.
‘The Oracle was that cautious?’
Heinz raised an eyebrow at his overly cautious demeanor.
To be honest, he didn’t know much about the Oracle.
He only knew that she had the ability to see the future and was one of the chief operators in guiding the actions of the Buncheon Society.
“They may not be combat types, but they’ve reached a mythological level, so isn’t that to be expected? Although she had to forfeit most of her rank due to the sin of leaking heavenly secrets, the constraints on Earth have mostly disappeared, making her not to be underestimated. …Well, it seems you’re entirely her antithesis.”
And yet the head of the Black Dragon Society looked rather unsurprised.
While scanning Heinz, it seemed he found it rather fascinating that he was completely beyond the Oracle’s capabilities.
“Okay, I understand that. We’ll take our time discussing the finer points later… Now the most important question remains.”
With narrowed eyes, Heinz quietly stared at his opponent.
At the same time, the atmosphere around them that had been quiet during their conversation began to tremor again.
The moment there was even a hint of suspicion, it felt as if he could tear apart anyone in front of him.
“Go Hara. The former East Asia branch head of the Buncheon Society, the Disaster Bringer.”
A thick fog of blood spread around them.
“Your true purpose, why you betrayed the Buncheon Society and intend to become their enemy.”
His stern gaze, which tolerated no lies, fixed directly on the old man’s psyche.
“And why I should trust you.”
With each word, the intimidation grew, and even the head of the Black Dragon Society could no longer maintain a calm demeanor.
As if forcing down a body that was almost prepared to enter a combat posture, he flinched several times before letting out a deep sigh.
“Ah, that’s a given, isn’t it?”
Then, with a stiff face, he continued speaking again.
“If the Buncheon Society’s plan goes through, at least more than half of the humans on Earth won’t survive.”
That was a reason more humanitarian than he had originally thought.
And at the same time, it was a problem of a scale far larger than anticipated.
*
‘Masquerade… a group of adversaries.’
The head of the Buncheon Society slowly lifted his gaze.
In his sight, the great law that enveloped the entire world reflected back at him.
‘Is this your will, Akasha?’
It was a part of an ultra-dimensional system that only he could observe fully.
The source of the power that bestowed the blessing of Awakening upon the only sentient beings on Earth, humans, allowing them to experience miracles of the mysterious was that thing.
‘At the same time, it’s the key to leading the world to destruction.’
Zing—
– I will never give up… surely… will happen…
Wooong—
– By any means… at any cost…!
Now, the familiar headache rang in his ears along with a buzzing sound.
A voice that felt like his yet was somehow strange and unfamiliar reverberated in his mind.
But he didn’t flinch, staring blankly at the laws of the world.
It was nothing new anymore.
The visions of a future that had now become the past flickered in his eyes.
Like a nation following a closed-country policy collapsing under external forces— ultimately failing and perishing.
‘I expected there to be obstacles.’
It was always like that.
No matter how much he prepared countermeasures based on accumulated knowledge, it was all for naught.
As if it were an unavoidable fate, it always approached unexpectedly at the most unforeseen moments, disrupting all his plans.
‘But I am definitely moving forward.’
He could affirm that.
Responses based on accumulated experience were effective.
Despite various constraints, increasing the market share to this level could be regarded as the best so far.
If there were any problems, it was just one.
The fact that the extent of the system’s coercion had reached an unavoidable level as he advanced.
His achievements had grown, and the level of his adversaries had also become unprecedentedly threatening.
‘Hahoe Mask and Phantom, the saint of another world and the Lion Mask, and…’
None of his enemies were just capable of transcending dimensions, but several of them.
Moreover, the fact that he still had not fully grasped their identities was a significant issue.
He needed to understand the enemy in order to devise any countermeasures…
“Aha! Head! Here you are!”
Just then, when he had sunk deep into thought.
A somewhat nonsensical voice broke into his reflection.
“I had something to tell you, and how fortuitous that it has come to this!”
Striding towards him was a middle-aged man with light brown hair, the Doctor.
What had he done to his own body that a pair of eyes glowed fluorescent yellow, flickering like light?
“Ah! Looks like you recognized me, Head? These eyes, aren’t they cool? I extracted the factors from that guy known as the watcher of the Rodeka dimension and added a few things to them…”
Then, just like always, he began rambling on with various nonsensical stories.
Artificial body integrated with materials of diverse races and the spiritual energy circuits intricately carved through artificial tuning, along with all kinds of scientific artifacts blended together.
He proudly displayed each as if bragging.
“Truly, the body cultivated through a homunculus is far more flexible in this regard, isn’t it? If I had known this would happen, I’d have switched to a new body earlier. A body with too much pure human content is just so inflexible!”
While squabbling about how his own accumulated stature was falling, the mad scientist grumbled about using his body as experimental material.
Of course, he only could resurrect himself thanks to having torn apart his body into several parts and cultivated them beforehand.
“The fully evolved biological project would have been even better… Ah! Speaking of which, I think I might have had some connection with that Lion Mask in Masquerade. Listening to the stories, something vaguely resurfaced…”
“Doctor, let’s move on to the main point.”
At that moment, the head of the Buncheon Society quietly interjected.
Considering how long he had indulged him, he had shown enough courtesy for his rank.
Having just devoured a dimension, he had some leeway as long as he didn’t exert excessive force for the time being, but that didn’t mean he was willing to endlessly tolerate his ramblings.
“Eheheh! I completely forgot in my excitement!”
The Doctor slapped his forehead and looked at the head with a goofy grin.
Then, with an expression that seemed somewhat pleased, he continued.
“This time, I took a good look through the logs while I was asleep, and I found something extremely interesting! Someone attempted to hack into the system that I had locked down?”
“Hacking?”
“It wasn’t just any random person! The fact that someone reached that level is equivalent to an extraordinary quantum computer from beyond scientific civilization!”
It meant that not only the performance of the device but also the level of those who wielded it was no ordinary feat.
Had it not been for his “Deus Ex Machina,” it might truly have been breached.
“So, I tried to trace back, but it seemed they cared a lot about security as well, making it difficult to pinpoint their location! Heheh~ how embarrassing!”
Of course, he didn’t come back empty-handed.
While he hadn’t discovered the source, he had succeeded in finding the traces left by that hacker.
“…A large-scale hacking throughout Southeast Asia.”
That was the decisive reason they had convened an emergency meeting.
Evidence showed the unknown hacker had been deeply involved in the collapse of the Southeast Asia branch.
“Masquerade.”
“That’s it! To have a hacker of that caliber means that they are not merely powerful beings! Oh joy~ I want to face them directly, but it seems they’ve stopped their activities recently! Such a pity.”
Ignoring the genuinely regretful Doctor, the head of the Buncheon Society closed his eyes gently.
The group that had gathered to disrupt his plans, Masquerade.
The fact that they included a person with skills in information and communication that could impress the Doctor was certainly not good news.
‘But I will overcome this. No matter what obstacles arise. Even if it means sacrificing even more.’
Everything was for this world.
To protect the Earth from ruin.
That was a mission he could never share with anyone— as a regressor.
