The B-Rank Awakened known as Tat Rat possessed the ability ‘Iron Skin.’ Any part of his body he concentrated on would harden.
At full power, he could shrug off a barrage from a machine gun. Even now, with his ability suppressed by the Null Cuffs, he could laugh off most conventional blows.
This ability shone brightest in the chaotic brawls of prison, but it had one weakness—to harden his skin, he had to concentrate on that specific area. Any part he wasn’t concentrating on took the full force of an attack.
A staccato of impacts echoed like firecrackers.
Jae-hee moved like a phantom, weaving around Tat Rat like a breeze as he picked his shots, striking only the areas his opponent failed to harden.
Tat Rat’s limbs had the defensive power of shields, but the rest of him was still only human.
“Guh…!”
Gritting his teeth against the pain, Tat Rat thought, What is this movement? Is this really the same kid from yesterday?
He was completely different from the day before, when he had been focused solely on evasion.
Now, he perfectly dodged Tat Rat’s massive fists, and every time an attack missed and exposed an opening, Jae-hee seized the opportunity with a sharp counter.
He even precisely avoided the parts of Tat Rat’s body that were hardened for defense.
He stumble on some divine luck or what…?!
Just then, Jae-hee charged straight at him.
Seeing the Boy’s fist flying toward him, Tat Rat hardened his entire torso. But Jae-hee feinted, pulling his punch at the last second.
He’s even using feints?! Is this really the same amateur I fought yesterday?
Tat Rat was floored.
Whoosh! Jae-hee kicked off the ground, spinning sideways past Tat Rat’s flank. In that brief window, he crammed in a total of five strikes.
Temple, jaw, neck, armpit, ribs.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!
“Kegh…?!”
Jae-hee had slipped into his blind spot, pummeling Tat Rat before he could even register where the attacks were coming from.
He was only still standing because of his naturally tough constitution; an ordinary prisoner would have been out cold long ago.
“…Kid. You’re really something else.” Tat Rat staggered back as a brief gap opened between them. “I’ll talk to Boss Razor, smooth things over. How about it? You wanna join our crew…?”
A cold sweat trickled down Jae-hee’s back. “Uh… how exactly do you plan on cooling Razor bro down?”
“Shit, the only thing that matters in this place is who’s stronger right now. Kicking up all this fuss over someone who’s already dead is ridiculous to begin with.”
Tat Rat jutted his chin, massaging his smarting jaw. “You look like you’re still pretty young. Gotta think about your future after you get out, right? Join our crew, and I’ll even teach you a trade.”
“Huh? A trade? What kind?” Jae-hee asked, his interest piqued.
Tat Rat pointed to the irezumi covering his body. “I’m a tattooist by trade. Drew all this myself. Pretty good, ain’t it?”
“W-wow, definitely. They’re pretty super, yeah.”
“Join us, and I’ll pass my skills on to you. With how fucked up the world is, there are always tons of bastards who want to get ink done. You won’t have to worry about making a living when you get out.”
“Ooh…” Jae-hee listened with genuine interest.
“Or you could learn from that dickhead Barber. He might not look it, but his hairdressing skills are the real deal. And barbers are always in demand, no matter the time or place.”
Jae-hee even looked slightly moved. “Wow. You’re the first person in my life who’s ever offered to teach me a proper trade…”
He’d been chewed out for not learning how to crack safes, but he’d never met an adult who had actually offered to teach him a real skill.
However…
“Um, I really appreciate the offer… but I think we’re a little too far gone for that conversation.”
He was still young and not yet ruthless, but Jae-hee could at least read the room. There was no way he could join Razor’s crew now.
“To survive, I think I’m going to have to… take you all down.”
“Shit. That’s a shame… A kid like you would’ve been good for the crew’s future.”
Tat Rat cracked his neck, his eyes flashing menacingly. “Then I guess I have no choice… Time to die!”
BOOM—!
Kicking off the ground, Tat Rat charged like a bull. His entire body was tensed, every muscle bulging.
This was his trump card: full-body hardening.
Go ahead, try your fancy counters! Nothing can touch me now!
His plan was to wait for Jae-hee to close in for another counterattack, just as he had been doing, then use that opening to grab him.
Tat Rat had full confidence in his brute strength. If he could just get his hands on that pesky brat—just once—he’d crush him.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!
As Tat Rat’s footsteps thundered across the floor, Jae-hee met his charge head-on.
Tat Rat threw a powerful right hook with his knuckle duster, expecting Jae-hee to dodge and counter as before. He swung his left arm a beat later, aiming to snatch Jae-hee out of the air.
Whiff!
“?!”
But Jae-hee didn’t counter, nor did he get caught in Tat Rat’s grab.
What? Where did he—
Two beats later, Jae-hee reappeared in Tat Rat’s field of vision.
Riding his forward momentum, Jae-hee had dropped low, sliding across the floor to deliver a sweeping kick.
WHACK!
The toe of Jae-hee’s boot kicked the inside of Tat Rat’s planting ankle with pinpoint accuracy—just as it was about to touch the ground.
Hardening your body is one thing; keeping your balance while charging is another entirely.
“Ugh?!”
Tat Rat lost his balance and pitched forward. In his shock, his concentration broke, and the hardening effect covering his body vanished.
He was tumbling toward the corridor wall.
Seeing the wall rushing toward him, Tat Rat muttered, “Oh, hell.”
KWHAM!
He smashed face-first into the wall without even letting out a proper scream.
The reinforced steel plates of the cruise ship’s interior buckled inward. Tat Rat lost consciousness on impact, leaving a bloody smear on the wall as he slumped to the floor.
Silence crashed down over the deck like a wave.
The undisputed No. 2 of the 1st Deck, Tat Rat, had been defeated by a newbie.
“Hoo…”
As Jae-hee steadied his breathing, the other prisoners surrounding them were too stunned to move.
“What’s going on?!”
“This is…!”
It was at that moment that Razor and the Barber arrived on the scene.
The Barber’s eyes darted between the fallen Tat Rat and the unscathed Jae-hee as he shouted in disbelief. “You, newbie…! How did you get back from Deck 0 alive?!”
“Well, that’s kind of a long story… No, wait, is it short?” Jae-hee scratched his cheek with an awkward smile.
The Barber was breaking out in a cold sweat. The crew’s second-in-command had lost to this rookie? The kid was clearly talented, but he hadn’t been this strong yesterday…
“Jae-hee, my boy. So you’re alive.” Razor stepped forward, his eyes narrowing into thin slits as a faint smile played on his lips.
“Do you have any idea how wor~ried I was when I heard you fell to Deck 0? Heh heh. You’re supposed to get carved up by my hands, after all.”
Before Jae-hee could say anything, Razor jutted his chin forward. “Barber.”
“Yes, Boss.”
“Drag that little shit over to me.”
“Yessir.”
The Barber quickly drew two small bone scissors from his pockets, one in each hand.
I have to end this in one move.
Tat Rat lost? That meant Jae-hee was a danger to him, too.
The Barber decided to use his strongest technique from the start.
Fwip!
He lunged at Jae-hee. The two scissors slashed in quick succession, with a minuscule delay between them.
Even if he dodges the first one, he’ll never evade the follow-up!
The B-Rank Awakened known as the Barber—his ability was ‘Blade Unity,’ a common type of awakening that allowed him to wield his weapons as if they were extensions of his own will.
It was a useful skill for a hairdresser wanting to cut a client’s hair with perfect precision, but it was even more useful for a criminal.
First attack aims for the head, the second for the chest!
Even if the first strike missed, the second, delivered while his opponent was distracted, would pierce deep into his chest.
This combo could be considered the Barber’s supreme technique, polished over years of practice.
CLACK! CLACK—!
Just before his attack could connect, Jae-hee’s hands shot out and caught both of the Barber’s wrists. He twisted them outward, shattering the attack.
“…?!”
It was as if Jae-hee alone was splitting time itself. He seized the infinitesimal gap between the two attacks, forcibly prying it open and slipping into the breach!
What… this is impossible…
The smooth arc of the twin scissors was instantly broken, the technique collapsing powerlessly.
Before the Barber could even process what had happened, Jae-hee’s knee slammed into his solar plexus.
CRACK!
Jae-hee had charged in, twisted the Barber’s wrists, and used his momentum to land a clean shot on his wide-open torso.
“Uff!”
Gasping for air, the Barber’s eyes locked with Jae-hee’s.
But the Boy’s gaze, glowing with a blue light, wasn’t on him—it was fixed beyond, focused on a far longer road stretching endlessly ahead.
This punk… his ability isn’t just speed…
Clatter! Clang—!
A moment after the Barber’s body hit the floor, the bone scissors clattered noisily across the ground, having been flung much farther.
“…”
The remaining prisoners froze, staring in shock after witnessing the Barber’s instant defeat.
Only Razor let out a hearty laugh. “Well, damn. You got strong all of a sudden, didn’t you? You really did a number on my No. 2 and No. 3.”
“…”
“Find some lucky break down at Rock Bottom? Or what, is this a case of the boy who hid his power? Which is it?”
Catching his breath, Jae-hee wiped the sweat from his chin. “I just adapted. To the rules of this prison.”
Whether his ability was at 1 percent or 100 percent didn’t matter. Whether his power was super speed or the Trail of Wind didn’t matter, either.
What mattered was how far you were willing to go to survive in the environment you were given. That mindset was more important than anything else.
If I gotta fight, I’ll fight. Simple as that.
He would scrape together every tool at his disposal and struggle to survive one more day. Jae-hee was finally beginning to understand the true nature of survival in this prison.
He stretched his aching limbs and asked Razor cautiously, “I’d like to say we should stop here… but you’re not going to, are you?”
“You know me so well.” Razor’s bone ring morphed into a blade, which he gripped tightly. “You and me. One of us dies here.”
A bitter smile touched the Boy’s young face. “Sorry, but I can’t die yet.”
Razor sneered. “Why? You got some desperate reason to live?”
“No. It’s the opposite.” Jae-hee’s answer was unexpected. “Because I haven’t found a reason to live yet.”
“…?”
“I know it’s out there somewhere. A reason why I was born into this terrible world, why I’ve fought so hard to survive until now. It has to exist.”
Ghost’s words from before the end of the last mission flashed through his mind.
“This world is probably ending soon… but even so, people keep living. I guess that’s because they have some futile hope to cling to, if nothing else.”
“You’re going to need one, too.”
Right. Somewhere in this world, it had to exist.
Like the Fried Soboro Bread of another. His own, as-of-yet-unfound ‘futile hope.’
“And until I find it, I don’t plan on dying.”
“Ha…” With a scoff of disbelief, Razor kicked off the ground. “The fuck are you even on about, you little shiiiit!”
As Razor hurtled toward him, Jae-hee slowly bent down… and picked up the broken blade of the scissors the Barber had dropped.
“...!”
A shiver ran down the Barber’s spine as he watched from the floor.
A kid with that kind of speed… what would happen if he used a proper blade?
The Boy recalled the stance Ghost had shown him, slowly mimicking how she had held her sword.
Razor, screaming with rage. Jae-hee, holding a piece of sharpened metal.
The two were about to collide.
«Ah, ah! Okay, that’s enough!» A loud voice boomed from the ceiling. «Sorry to interrupt while you were having so much fun. Everybody, stop!»
A startled Razor skidded to a halt. Jae-hee, equally surprised, looked toward the source of the voice.
He saw a security camera and speaker mounted in the corner of the corridor ceiling.
«This is Commander Hae-eun Seo.»
The voice belonged to the true ruler of this ship: Hae-eun Seo.
At the same time, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the elevators, and a squad of heavily armed correctional officers swarmed in, surrounding the prisoners.
«You’ve all been given a chance to vent that pent-up aggression outside.»
Razor gritted his teeth. She’d been watching them try to kill each other this whole time without intervening.
For her to intervene now meant only one thing…
«An emergency mission has been declared.»
She needed her prisoners.
From the ship’s distant upper decks, the Commander observed the inmates on the lowest level through the cameras, her voice carrying a faint hint of mischief.
«Time to clock in, Black Parade.»