Chapter 238
It was the first time Zeon realized lightning could flicker within a person’s eyes after seeing Lee Jiryung’s gaze.
It wasn’t an illusion.
Actual arcs of lightning continuously flashed within Lee Jiryung’s eyes.
‘So this is what happens when an awakener capable of using lightning reaches S-Rank.’
It was something he had never known before.
Up close, crackling lightning flickered constantly within his eyes, but from afar, they looked like blazing white flames.
The sheer pressure of his gaze alone was enough to make people feel suffocated.
An ordinary person would probably have collapsed to their knees just from looking into those eyes.
Yet Zeon met Lee Jiryung’s stare without the slightest reaction.
Lee Jiryung asked,
“How did you escape a dungeon after it had already been cleared?”
“Well…”
Zeon smiled vaguely.
Once a dungeon was cleared, it disappeared entirely.
Literally erased from existence.
That was why Lee Jiryung had attacked Zeon and Brielle’s group inside the dungeon in the first place.
Naturally, he had assumed they would vanish together with the collapsing dungeon.
Yet the group that should have died appeared again completely unharmed.
When Lee Jiryung first heard the news, the shock had been indescribable.
It was the first time in his life he had ever been that surprised.
Even when his worthless younger brother died, he hadn’t been shaken that badly.
Since they had traveled together before, he knew better than anyone how absurd Zeon’s abilities were.
In the desert, Zeon was nearly invincible.
Ordinary awakeners and demonic beasts were no match for him.
The entire desert itself functioned as Zeon’s weapon.
That was why even Lee Jiryung had given up on confronting Zeon directly in the desert and instead trapped him inside the dungeon.
Fighting him head-on would have been too burdensome.
And now that troublesome existence stood before him once again.
Zeon asked,
“Are you more curious about how I escaped the dungeon? Or why I came back to Neo Seoul?”
“You came for revenge?”
“I came to repay a debt. You know how it works, right? If you owe something and don’t repay it, people start looking down on you. And people looked down on get treated a certain way.”
“….”
Lee Jiryung frowned deeply.
No one understood Zeon’s meaning better than he did.
That was exactly why he had become obsessively strong and expanded the Pegasus Raid Force.
So that no one would ever dare look down on him.
After a long silence, Lee Jiryung finally spoke.
“If you decide to stop here, I’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”
“All of it?”
“Killing my brother. Stealing the highest-grade magic stone. Betraying the Pegasus Raid Force inside the dungeon.”
“I’ll admit to the first one. But the second and third are completely false.”
“The truth doesn’t matter. If I say it happened, then it happened.”
“You’re still unbelievably arrogant.”
“So? Will you accept my offer or not?”
At that moment, the corners of Zeon’s lips curled upward.
Anyone could tell it was pure mockery.
“You can get fooled once. People let their guard down. But if you get fooled by the same person twice, that just means you’re stupid.”
“So you’re rejecting my offer.”
“Don’t make me repeat myself.”
“Then from this moment on, you are my enemy.”
“You really are self-centered. The moment you stabbed us in the back inside the dungeon, we were already enemies. Hearing those words from a traitor doesn’t exactly stir my heart.”
Zeon chuckled softly.
Truthfully, they had been enemies from the very beginning.
From the moment Zeon killed his younger brother.
Who caused it in the first place no longer mattered.
No matter how worthless his brother had been, he was still Lee Jiryung’s blood relative. Seeking revenge for him was only natural.
The idea of abandoning revenge for the greater good was laughable.
After staring at Zeon for a moment longer, Lee Jiryung turned away.
“You should look forward to what’s going to happen to you from now on…”
“I’ll look forward to it. But if you want to satisfy me, it’ll take more than some half-hearted spectacle.”
“I’ll do my best not to disappoint you.”
At that moment, someone approached Lee Jiryung.
“Visitation time is over.”
It was Kevin, the captain of the NSSC.
Lee Jiryung turned cold eyes toward him.
Kevin clenched his teeth and endured the overwhelming pressure.
“It’s regulation.”
“Regulations…”
“If you’re finished, please leave now.”
“Very well.”
Lee Jiryung brushed past Kevin indifferently.
Kevin’s shoulders trembled with humiliation.
He wasn’t someone who normally got treated like this.
As captain of the NSSC, even the rulers of each district showed him a certain level of respect. Yet Lee Jiryung had treated him with complete contempt from start to finish.
He hadn’t even followed proper procedures when coming to the NSSC headquarters.
He had simply barged in during the middle of the night and pressured them into letting him meet Zeon.
Kevin couldn’t ignore Lee Jiryung’s demands.
Lee Jiryung was already recognized as one of Neo Seoul’s major powers. That was why Kevin had allowed the exception.
But visitation couldn’t continue forever, so Kevin had cautiously spoken up.
The only thing he received in return was an icy glare and utter disregard.
‘This fucking bastard…’
Completely unaware that Kevin was grinding his teeth in fury, Lee Jiryung walked away.
Left alone in the corridor, Kevin looked at Zeon through the window and spoke.
“Zeon.”
“Yes?”
“You really didn’t kill my men?”
“You already know this, but I have no reason to kill them.”
“Fuck!”
Kevin kicked the prison door hard.
NSSC Team 3 had stormed into the cell seeking revenge, only to get beaten senseless by Zeon and Eloi.
Because the prison disrupted the flow of mana, the fight had been purely physical.
But regardless of the circumstances, Team 3 had lost.
Zeon had an opportunity to escape after defeating them.
But he hadn’t taken it.
And at that moment, a certain thought crossed Kevin’s mind.
A suspicion had begun to grow in Kevin’s mind.
What if Zeon really wasn’t the culprit?
If Zeon had actually been guilty, he would have escaped the prison the moment he defeated Team 3.
Ever since then, Kevin hadn’t been able to shake the uneasy feeling.
“If it wasn’t you, then who killed my men?”
“You’re already suspicious yourself, aren’t you? Trust your instincts.”
“Fuck!”
Bang!
Kevin kicked the iron door once again.
But the door, forged from a special metal, didn’t even gain a scratch.
After fuming alone for a moment, Kevin looked back at Zeon.
“Until your innocence is proven, I can’t release you. Those are the NSSC’s rules.”
“I understand.”
“But I’ll at least make sure useless bastards don’t keep coming here to bother you.”
“That’ll be difficult. The people involved aren’t ordinary.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not exactly ordinary myself. Rest comfortably until your innocence is proven.”
“Sounds good.”
Once outside, Kevin shouted furiously,
“Fuck! Those filthy bastards! How dare they stab me in the back? Tighten security and deny all visitors!”
***
Lee Jiryung glanced back at the NSSC headquarters.
A blue membrane was forming around the massive warehouse-like building.
The defensive barrier had activated.
Important buildings throughout Neo Seoul all possessed such defensive barriers.
They normally remained inactive, only activating during emergencies.
The fact that the NSSC headquarters had deployed its barrier meant Kevin considered Lee Jiryung and the Pegasus Raid Force to be dangerous threats.
“How foolish…”
At that moment, a gray-haired woman waiting outside approached him.
It was Kelda, his secretary and the leader of the rescue team.
She asked,
“How did it go?”
“The negotiations failed.”
“As expected. There’s also been a problem in Dongdaemun.”
“What now?”
“An intruder stole the highest-grade magic stone and escaped.”
“Idiots…”
Lee Jiryung sneered contemptuously.
He had joined hands with Johan in order to expand his influence.
His goal was to dominate Neo Seoul, while Johan aimed to control the slums.
But Lee Jiryung had never intended to remain allies forever.
Even for him, keeping a fanatic organization like Dongdaemun around long-term was a burden.
He had planned to use them for a while and discard them later.
Instead, this disaster had happened.
“Who stole the magic stone?”
“They say the intruder phased through walls to steal it…”
“It’s him. Levin.”
“That seems likely.”
Lee Jiryung bit down hard on his lip.
He had coveted Levin’s ability and tried multiple times to recruit him under his command, but every attempt had failed.
“Fortunately, the barrier covering all of Dongdaemun has been activated, so they apparently haven’t escaped yet.”
“They won’t be able to maintain the barrier for long. It’d be ideal if they caught him before then, but if not…”
“We’ll suffer serious consequences.”
If it became known that they had colluded with Dongdaemun to attack the NSSC—a force directly under City Hall—and steal the highest-grade magic stone, even Mayor Jin Geumho wouldn’t stay silent.
Jin Geumho was tolerant when districts fought amongst themselves for power.
But anyone who threatened him personally or challenged the authority of City Hall received absolutely no mercy.
Even Lee Jiryung, whose confidence now soared after becoming an S-Rank awakener, wasn’t confident he could face Jin Geumho.
He needed more growth.
More influence.
What he lacked was time.
“We’ll initiate the second plan.”
“Right now?”
“If not now, we may never get another opportunity.”
“Understood.”
Kelda pulled a cellphone from her pocket.
Phones became useless once outside in the desert, but within Neo Seoul, no better communication method existed.
Kelda called someone.
“Yeah, it’s me. Proceed according to plan.”
After delivering the brief instruction, she hung up.
Lee Jiryung folded his arms and gazed over the skyline of Neo Seoul.
Boom!
At that moment, an explosion erupted from a tall building.
The upper floors were completely blown apart.
“What the hell?”
“Is that a terrorist attack?”
People sleeping deep into the night rushed outside in shock.
WEEEOOOO—
Urgent sirens echoed throughout all of Neo Seoul.
Lee Jiryung muttered,
“When terrorism occurs in Neo Seoul, every armed force directly under City Hall is required to mobilize.”
The moment he finished speaking, awakeners poured out from the NSSC headquarters.
It was Teams 1 and 3, the awakeners responsible for protecting the NSSC.
After hearing news of the terrorist attack, they mobilized nearly all available personnel, leaving behind only a minimal force.
Kevin, the captain of the NSSC who had been opposing Lee Jiryung, was among them.
Once they completely vanished from sight, Lee Jiryung smiled.
“Shall we begin robbing the empty house now?”
Black shadows began gathering one by one behind him.
They were awakeners from the Pegasus Raid Force.
Hundreds of awakeners had secretly assembled around the NSSC headquarters.
Bronson, the raid team leader, stared at the building and muttered,
“Heh heh… So we’re finally hunting the Sand Mage?”
“We can’t drag this out. We kill Zeon before the NSSC bastards return.”
“Don’t worry, Commander! He may be invincible in the desert, but not here. There’s no sand, and mana barely functions inside that prison. What power could he possibly use?”
The NSSC prison’s nickname was the Clean Room.
A structure so tightly sealed that not even a speck of dust—let alone sand—could enter.
For a Sand Mage like Zeon, it was the worst possible environment.
That was exactly why they had chosen it as the battlefield.
Lee Jiryung addressed the awakeners.
“Whoever brings me Zeon’s head will become a vice commander of the Pegasus Raid Force.”
“WOOOOOO!”
“His head is mine!”
“Move!”
The excited awakeners charged toward the NSSC headquarters one after another.
Their goal was Zeon’s head.