How to Survive in a Fusion Punk

Chapter 24 – The ring

Jin was quick-witted.

That was thanks to the 30 years he had spent living in South Korea.

After all, wasn’t South Korea a country so attuned to social cues that the term “nunchi culture” existed?

For instance, in a survey on “the type of new employee people want to work with,” only 25% of respondents preferred an honest employee who admitted their mistakes—ranking dead last.

Meanwhile, a quick-witted employee took first place with a staggering 67% preference.

(For reference, the second-place choice was an employee who was good at greetings.)

With the ideal worker being both perceptive and polite, earning money in South Korea was no easy feat.

And yet, South Koreans had no choice but to make it work!

In any case, as a South Korean man himself, Jin had not entirely lost his roots.

Though the various trials he had faced had shaved away a good portion of his politeness stat, his ability to read the room was still alive and well.

So, he quickly grasped the situation.

The guy collapsed over there was the seller.

The masked guy was the buyer.

So far, so good.

The real problem was the guy with the rat-bitten scar on his face.

Judging by the way he spoke as if the artifact belonged to him and how the seller seemed terrified of him… he was most likely the superior here.

That meant there was only one conclusion.

He had stolen the goods.

At last, Jin went from knowing nothing to fully understanding the situation.

Not that it made the glares directed at him any kinder after what he had just blurted out.

“A thief?”

Henri frowned as he turned his gaze toward Jin.

Then, flashing a fierce smile, he lifted his foot.

“This bastard is the thief. Right? Isn’t that right?”

“Ghh…”

A suppressed groan leaked from Mikel’s lips as his head was crushed underfoot.Even so, he refused to let go of the case in his hands, his determination to protect it shining through.

At last, he stammered out a response.

“I… found it… damn it…”

“Hah!”

Henri scoffed, as if he had just heard something ridiculous.

But only for a moment.

His expression turned lethal as he pressed down harder.

“Let me ask you one thing. How much were you supposed to get? Just how much was it worth for you to stab me in the back?”

Jin instinctively held his breath.

He suddenly recalled what Khalifa had estimated its value to be.

Before he knew it, his fist had clenched tightly.

His eyes remained fixed on Mikel, who was still stubbornly holding out.

Come on, just say it already!

Perhaps Jin’s silent plea had reached him.

Because, in the end, unable to endure the pain any longer, Mikel burst out,

“…Five billion! Five billion credits!”

In that instant—

Henri’s face went blank.

Jin staggered as if he had just glimpsed some cosmic horror.

And the masked man said nothing.

“What?”

“I said it already, damn it! Five billion!”

“…Is that true?”

Henri directed his question at the masked man.

Though no answer came,

Henri seemed to take the silence as confirmation.

A wild laugh erupted from him.

“AHAHAHAHA!”

He laughed so hard his throat was fully exposed.

Then, gradually lowering his head, he spoke.

“Mikel! Mikel! Mikel! I underestimated you. Yeah! This level of guts is exactly what the second-in-command of Sweet Dream should have. Ahaha! Five billion! You did well, Mikel!”

Just moments ago, he had looked ready to squash the traitor like a bug.

Yet now, he was showering him with praise, his face still brimming with amusement as he turned to the masked man.

“I take back what I said about not selling. So? Where’s my five billion?”

…This bastard.

Why the hell is that his money?

Jin, having barely regained his composure, glared with all his might.

At last, the masked man spoke.

A voice altered with a faint distortion, making it impossible to determine the speaker’s gender.

“The goods first.”

“Who said I want it right now? I just want to see it.”

At that, the masked man raised a hand to his temple.

With a click, a small chip popped out, which he caught and held up.

“This is a credit chip that can withdraw five billion from Blacknet. If you don’t believe me, feel free to check.”

“…I won’t say no to that.”

Henri said, staring intently at the credit chip.

From afar, it seemed like he was scanning the chip. Soon, a look of delight spread across his face.

“Very good.”

Then, stomping down once more—

This time, Mikel screamed as his hand was crushed beneath the heel.

“AAAAARGH!”

That was the end of his resistance.

No one can clench a fist with shattered bones.

“You’re too loud. Get lost.”

Henri kicked the writhing Mikel aside and reached for the case that had fallen to the ground.

At that moment, Gravis roared.

BANG—!!

A bullet ripped through the night air, tearing into Henri’s forearm.

At the same time, a masked figure lunged like a panther, rolling across the ground and snatching up the case.

A perfectly coordinated division of roles.

But that wasn’t the case.

Jin was just as surprised by the masked figure as the masked figure was by Jin.

Their simultaneous reactions had simply lined up by chance.

And so, just as Jin pulled the trigger to finish off Henri, he abruptly redirected the gun toward the masked figure.

“You son of a biiitch!!!”

Henri, suddenly engulfed in flames, swung his arm—now replaced entirely by fire.

The sweeping motion unleashed a surge of flames that surged forward.

The masked figure was the first to be hit, and Jin followed right after.

BOOM—!!

The condensed flames struck the ground, triggering a chain of explosions.

The road was instantly shrouded in thick smoke.

From within that haze, a blue light flickered.

THUD!

The next moment, Jin burst through the smoke, driving his fist into Henri’s stomach.

Henri bounced across the pavement like a skipping stone before catching himself with a hand against the ground.

SCRAAAAAPE—

As his fingertips dug into the asphalt, slowing his momentum, his body took on a strange appearance—half-human, half-fire.

Jin recognized it at a glance.

A pyrokinetic.

A psychic who manipulates flames.

Tch.

Why do they always have to look so damn cool?

Jin scowled, recalling the time he seriously considered picking the [Psychic] perk as his second-star trait.

Meanwhile, Henri, now back on his feet, roared in fury.

“You… DARE…! MY ARM…! FUCK! I’LL CRUSH YOU!”

Was it because psychic abilities were influenced by emotions?

The flames surrounding Henri flared violently.

Then, without hesitation, he launched himself into the air—just like in the movies.

A human torch propelled forward, accelerating with explosions behind him, crashing into Jin’s waist before flipping backward in the sky.

Jin braced his legs and tried to hold his ground, but with each explosion adding to Henri’s momentum, his feet lifted off the ground.

As he was sent soaring, his body rotated half a turn in midair.

Through the searing pain of burning flesh, Jin repeatedly hammered his elbow into his opponent’s skull.

“LET! ME! GO!”

But before the fire freak’s head could crack, Jin’s vision completely inverted.

Blood rushed to his head.

The sky and ground reversed.

Henri accelerated again.

BOOOOM!!!

A collision of red and blue light slammed into the ground.

Concrete shattered and debris flew in all directions.

A short distance from the explosion’s epicenter, Henri coughed out dry breaths.

The flames around him had visibly diminished.

But he was alive.

Because he had used Jin as a cushion upon impact.

Originally, he’d planned to drop him from above, but after taking those hits to the head, he’d lost focus.

Logically, a pyrokinetic, whose fire grants increased physical resistance, shouldn’t have been affected like that.

“What a goddamn monster… No idea who you are, but you’re dead now…”

Henri shuddered as he took a deep breath.

Losing his arm had rattled him too much.

He had burned too much energy, and now his flames were dangerously close to fizzling out.

As he tried to steady his breathing and rise—

GRAB.

A rough hand seized the nape of his neck—

“Kh…!”

Henri’s struggling body floated into the air.

Then came the sound of a voice filled with metallic rasp.

“…I really thought I was gonna die, you bastard.”

What Henri saw and felt next was simple.

A gust so strong it was hard to keep his eyes open.

The ground rushing toward him.

Kwaang!!

His face, not the back of his head, slammed into the earth with a thunderous impact, splitting the ground beneath him.

As his body lay sprawled out, convulsing, the flames engulfing him finally died down.

Only then did the blood start gushing from the stump of his missing right arm.

“Huff, huff.”

Jin, who had been watching with bloodshot eyes, finally exhaled a heated breath.

Having plummeted like a rocket from a height of thirty meters, his vision was still spinning.

His back refused to straighten properly—his bones must have been shattered.

Unbeknownst to him, the skin on the back of his head was peeling off and dangling.

A sight too gruesome to bear witness to.

Had it not been for the dopamine surge from absorbing Henri’s experience points—the sensation bursting in his mind like fireworks—he might have collapsed on the spot.

It feels like twice the amount I got from that chameleon beastkin.

…If I had to put a number on it, maybe around 2,000 XP?

Jin thought as he pressed his palm against his knee.

His gaze naturally drifted downward.

Soon enough, he noticed a pair of shoes approaching him.

Despite his exhaustion, he lifted his head and smirked.

“Why didn’t you run?”

At the end of his gaze stood the masked figure.

Or rather, what was left of the masked figure—both the mask and the hood covering it had been burned away.

A woman with short black hair and icy blue-white eyes.

Her expression was as cold as ice when she finally spoke, this time without the distortion of her previous voice modulator.

“It wasn’t there.”

“What?”

Instead of answering, she clicked open a case she pulled from her coat.

As she said, it was completely empty.

Jin blinked, rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

That was when a barely alive voice spoke up from a distance.

“…I have it.”

It was Mikel.

He was curled up like a worm, still lying where Henri had kicked him.

The woman turned her gaze toward him and started walking.

Jin staggered after her, thinking to himself.

I don’t think I have it in me to deal with that guy, though.

What should I do?

Her steps seemed oddly light, but in his current condition, he couldn’t even properly assess her movements.

Still, with his experience points topped up…

Maybe now’s the time to unlock that perk I’ve been considering?

Just as Jin seriously pondered it—

“The deal isn’t over yet, is it?”

Mikel called out as the woman approached.

“Hand over the item first.”

The same response as before.

Mikel bit his lip, but realizing he had no choice, he pulled a ring from his coat.

He carefully placed it on his palm.

Its elegant curves, the intricate engravings on its surface—

And the eerie red glow emanating from it made it quite the sight to behold.

An artifact?

It definitely looks valuable.

…but doesn’t it feel a little ominous?

Narrowing his eyes, Jin scrutinized the ring.

At the same time, he subtly moved his fingers, toes, and joints—waiting for his battered body to recover enough for him to make a move.

“…I took it out in advance just in case. Since I was gripping the case so tightly, you naturally assumed it was inside, right?”

Mikel chuckled weakly, drawing out his words.

“Three hundred million. That’s all I want. Kill that blood-soaked bastard over there, take the item, and go. That’s enough for me.”

“…?”

Jin tilted his head.

What the hell is this dumbass talking about in front of a woman who was about to bail?

Looking at Mikel closely, he realized—

Ah, damn.

His eyes were unfocused, and his entire body was covered in burns.

He must’ve been caught in the explosion and was barely holding onto consciousness.

Yet, perhaps clinging to some faint hope, he desperately straightened his barely functioning back as he awaited a response.

But instead of replying, the woman spoke with a sigh.

“This isn’t what we were looking for. It matches the description perfectly, but the mana leaking from it is too crude. I almost fell for it until I saw it in person. It’s probably just an imitation from that era. Haah. This is exactly why I hate coming out myself.”

With that, she turned away.

Mikel’s face twisted in desperation.

“Hey! Hey! Where the fuck do you think you’re going, you bitch?! Hey! HEY! Do you have any idea what kind of shit I went through because of you?! You—”

His rant didn’t last long.

With an almost casual flick of the wrist, a dagger embedded itself deep into Mikel’s forehead, sinking so far in that only the hilt remained visible.

Even Jin, in his current condition, wouldn’t have been able to dodge such an inhuman throw.

So he remained silent, merely watching as events unfolded.

Then, as if she were walking away for good, the woman suddenly spoke.

“You. You’re working solo, right?”

She didn’t seem to expect an answer, as she continued before Jin could even open his mouth.

“Take the ring.”

“That’s fine with you?”

“But deliver a message to your employer.”

Her pale blue eyes glinted coldly.

“I’m letting it slide today, but if they keep overreaching… the city’s blade will come for them.”