WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Max-Level Swordsman of Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 12
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Shhk!
The guard’s head rolled onto the floor. Blood splashed across the face of the guard beside him.
“You son of a...”
The guard instinctively reached for his waist. But Kang Doseok’s sword moved first.
Thrust.
The tip shot forward like lightning, sinking into the base of the guard’s throat. Scrrrk. As Doseok pulled it free, frothy blood streamed down from the guard’s Adam’s apple.
“Ghh, khh!”
Clutching his throat with both hands, the guard staggered, struck his head against the glass door, and collapsed. Kang Doseok stepped past the corpse and went inside.
The interior of Black Table was far more lavish than the outside.
Golden light poured over a black marble floor.
Roulette and card tables filled the spacious hall, and a huge electronic display flashed on the wall. Rows of slot machines stretched out across the room. Beyond a half-open passage farther inside, a red staircase led to the VIP rooms.
Kang Doseok walked through the smell of alcohol, perfume, and cigarette smoke. A bodyguard standing just inside the entrance was the first to react.
“Hey, you...”
He never finished.
Kang Doseok’s sword cut diagonally through the bodyguard’s jawbone. Crack. The sound of splitting flesh and bone mingled with the music. The guard’s head snapped back, and blood streamed down beneath the golden lights.
“Aaaaaah!”
“What the fuck... Who’s this crazy bastard?! Guards! What are the guards doing?!”
“He’s alone! Get your guns out!”
“Block the VIP passage and report upstairs!”
The guards’ shouts mixed with the customers’ screams. Kang Doseok walked slowly through it all.
“If you’re just here for fun, keep your heads down.”
Bang!
At that moment, a shot rang out from the second-floor railing. A bullet flew straight at the space between Kang Doseok’s eyes. Without even turning his head, he raised his sword.
Clang!
The bullet bounced off the blade and shattered a ceiling light. Shards of glass fell, scattering golden light.
“Shoot! Keep shooting!”
Brrrrrt!
A submachine gun spat fire from the second-floor railing. Kang Doseok ducked low, then leaped up across the open center of the hall.
The guard at the railing stared wide-eyed as Kang Doseok closed the distance in an instant.
“What...”
Kang Doseok’s sword sliced through the gun barrel and the guard’s body together.
Clatter. The severed submachine gun fell to the floor. The guard’s half-split body caught on the railing. Kang Doseok kicked the corpse.
Splat!
It landed in the middle of the hall. Blood burst across the marble floor.
“Aaaaaah!”
Customers who had been trying to get up dropped back down. Some crawled under tables. Others lay flat on the floor, clutching their chips. A middle-aged man in a suit backed into a chair and fell over.
Kang Doseok looked down into the hall from the railing.
It wasn’t hard to tell the staff from the customers. Those lying flat were customers. Those holding guns were staff.
Kang Doseok jumped down.
Thud.
“Die!”
A nearby bodyguard raised a gun. Slash! Kang Doseok swung his sword, and a severed hand and head dropped to the floor. More bodyguards poured out from deeper inside the hall.
“Stop him!”
“Close the VIP passage!”
Gunfire erupted.
Kang Doseok walked forward, deflecting bullets with his sword. He cut the head off someone shooting from behind a table, then sliced through the wrist of an employee holding a radio.
His blade passed through neck after neck. Severed heads rolled across the marble floor.
* * *
Big Bess, Black Table’s manager, raced down the corridor. Their dress shoes pounded over the carpet. Gunshots and screams still rang out from the hall behind them. The guards’ shouts came without pause.
[Second floor’s breached!]
[Multiple casualties in the main hall... You fucker! Stop that bastard! Block him with your bodies if you have to!]
[Closing the VIP passage! Clos... Ghh!]
“Shut up! Shut the fuck up!”
Big Bess switched off their radio. They were the manager of Black Table. The person who decided who could enter this casino, who got thrown out, and whose limbs they would accept as collateral.
But now they were reduced to running for their life, gasping for breath.
The bodyguard outside the VIP room stared at them.
“Manager?”
“Move!”
Big Bess shoved the bodyguard aside and opened the door.
Bang!
Beyond it lay a world completely different from the hall.
Thick soundproof walls. Red lighting. A gold-trimmed table. Expensive bottles of liquor lined the walls. Chips were piled like mountains on the poker table in the center.
A man sat before those piles.
He was in his late forties, with short, neatly trimmed hair. Chrome cyberware ran along his collarbones and up to his jawline. He showed no sign of being drunk or upset over losing money.
Flat, indifferent eyes surveyed the table from an expressionless face.
“Chief.”
“Raise.”
The man pushed chips forward with his metal fingertips.
The dealer’s hands stopped. The customers sitting opposite him swallowed. The chips on the table for this hand alone were worth hundreds of millions.
Big Bess shouted, their face pale.
“Chief, please, right now... There’s something I need to tell you.”
The man’s eyes turned slowly. He glanced at Big Bess, then looked back at the cards on the table.
“Quiet.”
He held a cigarette between his teeth.
“Can’t you see I’m playing poker?”
“No, sir, there’s a problem in the casino. The staff are...”
“Call.”
The man spoke without interest. A customer across the table raised an eyebrow slightly.
“That’s a call.”
The dealer laid down the next card. Big Bess hurried to the man’s side and bent down.
“Chief. This isn’t the time to play cards!”
The man didn’t answer.
He studied the cards for a moment.
Then he pushed forward a handful of his remaining chips.
“Raise.”
The dealer laid down the final card.
Every eye at the table turned to the man.
He slowly revealed his hand.
A full house.
The customer opposite him went stiff.
The customer swallowed, then turned over his own cards.
Four of a kind.
The VIP room fell silent.
The dealer, the customers, and the bodyguards were all speechless. Only the winner managed a small smile, a drop of cold sweat running down his face. The man who had just won the money spoke from across the table.
“Well, well. Our chief is taking quite a loss today. Haha. Anyway, I hear there’s some trouble in the casino... Perhaps it’s time we wrapped things up?”
The man, the police chief of Sector F’s districts in the 10s, ignored him and stared down at his own cards for a moment.
Then he muttered under his breath.
“God damn it.”
A metal finger tapped the edge of a card.
“They’ve bled me for two billion today alone.”
The police chief leaned back in his chair. Cigarette smoke drifted slowly from his lips. That was when Kang Doseok entered the VIP room.
Craaaash!
The door burst inward.
The thick door was torn free in one piece and tumbled across the floor. Kang Doseok walked in over the wreckage.
Blood spattered his black coat, and more still dripped from the tip of the sword in his hand.
Big Bess let out a near-scream.
“Fucking hell! Shoot that bastard! Blow him to fucking pieces!”
Ratatatat!
The bodyguards inside the VIP room pulled their triggers at once. Flames burst from their muzzles, and bullets poured toward Kang Doseok.
He didn’t even turn his head.
His sword moved.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
The bullets bounced off his blade. Some shattered the ceiling. Some buried themselves in the walls. And some went straight back.
Thud, thud, thud!
The shooting bodyguards jerked backward. Between the eyes, through the neck, through the chest. Their own bullets tore through their bodies.
The bodyguards collapsed.
Their face white, Big Bess staggered and turned to the police chief.
“F-fuck, damn it! Chief. You need to get out of here...”
Kang Doseok making it this far was a problem. The dead bodyguards were a problem. Black Table turning into a bloodbath was a problem.
But there was an even bigger problem.
A police chief of the NCPD (Netron City Police Department).
The man who held all law enforcement in Sector F’s districts in the 10s in his hands.
The reason Black Table had never faced a proper crackdown, even after stealing the entire business from Selna.
The reason reports disappeared before reaching their destination, dead customers were listed as missing, and severed limbs could be secretly buried at the collection zone’s body disposal facility.
All of it was thanks to the police chief.
The chief wasn’t a particularly wealthy customer. He was simply a customer whose death would cause trouble. A VVVIP whose death would cause Black Table a great deal of trouble.
Big Bess’s throat went dry.
The police chief slowly took the cigarette from his mouth.
“Hmm.”
He didn’t look at the fallen bodyguards.
He didn’t look at the blood-spattered table, the shattered liquor bottles, or the cartridge cases rolling across the floor.
His eyes were fixed on Kang Doseok.
“Deflecting bullets and sending them back at whoever fired them...”
He spoke quietly.
“If you’re a swordsman and a player with the Ricochet Reflection skill...”
A faint trace of interest appeared on the police chief’s expressionless face.
“You must be Kang Doseok. I didn’t expect to meet you like this.”
As he got a clear look at Kang Doseok’s face, the chief’s eyes slowly widened. The corners of his mouth rose slightly.
“What brings you here?”
Kang Doseok let his bloody sword hang at his side for a moment and looked at the chief.
“Getting paid to kill people.”
“Did someone named Selna send you?”
Kang Doseok’s eyebrows shifted slightly.
“How do you know that?”
“I know how all the thugs around here think.”
The police chief took a slow drag on his cigarette.
“I hear Selna got his body back. He’s quite resourceful, so I thought he might try something drastic. I heard he killed Sinkella too. By hiring you.”
“Hmm.”
Kang Doseok’s eyes narrowed slightly. The man knew more than he’d expected, considering he had been getting cleaned out at the poker table just a moment ago. As that thought crossed his mind, the police chief asked a question.
“There’s something I’m curious about. Sss. Kang Doseok.”
The tip of his cigarette glowed red as he inhaled.
“Are you going to kill all the staff here?”
“Yes.”
“The customers too?”
“No.”
“That’s good. Looks like I get to keep my head.”
The chief chuckled. Kang Doseok asked him a question in return.
“I heard them call you the police chief. Planning to get in my way just because you’ve got a badge?”
“Get in your way?”
As the police chief gave a low laugh, Big Bess cut in.
“Chief! You can’t reason with this bastard! You need to get out of here!”
“Why would I?”
The police chief reached toward Big Bess. He lightly rested his palm against the bridge of Big Bess’s nose.
Click.
The next instant, the inside of his palm opened.
Thrust!
“Ghh...”
Crunch!
A thin blade sixty centimeters long burst out through the back of Big Bess’s head.
Big Bess’s eyes widened, and the police chief slowly pulled his hand away.
Splat!
Blood sprayed over the gold-trimmed table. Big Bess’s face split wide open, pouring blood. Their knees buckled, and they sank to the floor.
Thud.
Their body fell limp.
The police chief looked down at his bloody palm. The blade folded back into his hand.
“Oh dear. Now I’ve got filthy blood on me. Anyway, back to the point. Am I planning to get in your way? Not at all. Why would I do that? If everyone here dies, my debt disappears too.”
He smiled as he spoke. Then he picked up a poker chip and threw it at the head of the man sitting opposite him.
Whirrr!
The poker chip tore through the air.
Bam!
Crack!
The customer’s head snapped back, taking the chair with it. His forehead was blown wide open, and fragments of shattered skull scattered beneath the red lights.
A single thrown chip had smashed a man’s head to pieces.
The high-end combat cyberware embedded in the police chief’s arm had unleashed its monstrous strength.
“Kang Doseok. Hurry up and stab all these bastards to death. That’ll wipe out my debt. Or would you like a little help? Hmm?”
The police chief grinned at Kang Doseok.
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