Record of a Thousand Lives

Kang Yoon-Soo and his party went up to the upper floor.
Some of the Black Tiger Clan members had brought fire retardant shields as they fought off the remaining fire; staff-wielding Magicians had also arrived, spreading ice magic to quell the fire.
They were quite orderly for a criminal organization.

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Henrick clicked his tongue and said, “It seems like we didn’t inflict much damage to these guys.”

The headquarters of the Black Tiger Clan was vast and wide, but there was nothing else special about it.

A sweet and addictive fragrance flowed out from somewhere, tickling their noses.
Iris asked as she sniffed it, “What is this smell? It doesn’t seem like a normal cigar.”

“They’re drugs,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

A few of the clan members were doing drugs at the scene of the fire.
A man who was rolling up some kind of dried leaves approached them and asked, “Hey, you guys! You just came out of the basement, right?”

Kang Yoon-Soo and his party stopped upon hearing those words, but it seemed the man hadn’t noticed them, as their faces were covered with the makeshift masks and they had the tattoo of the Black Tiger Clan on the backs of their hands.

“I can tell you guys are newbies.
What happened in the basement? What caused the fire?” the man asked.

“I was near the gas chamber.
Some guy was smoking, and it seems an ember flew from his cigar,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

The man shrugged and asked, “Really? Well, it’s not my responsibility anyway.
It seems they’ll kill a few of the guys and get over it.
More importantly, it seems something interesting is happening; let’s go to the main hall.”

“Sure,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.
He and his party followed the man.

The main hall was decorated with luxurious chandeliers, but the place was filled with the smoke from drugs.
It was a relief that the party members were wearing masks, as it would have been difficult for them to even breathe otherwise.

“It's a request to assassinate the family of Earl Amorkan! It’s thirty gold coins per head this time, and even a baby is included! It’s an easy job!”

“Any fleet-footed guys? We’re planning to steal the necklace of the Orkanic Family! Who knows? Maybe you’ll get to lick the ass of their widow! Kek! Keke!”

The clan members were all gathered in the main hall, planning all sorts of crimes.
The windows were covered in shutters, such that it was difficult for even a ray of light to enter the place, but the wilderness outside was barely visible through small gaps.
It seemed this place was definitely far away from populated areas.

“Sit here.
Do you want a smoke?” the man asked, extending the cigar he had been rolling previously.

‘It’s been a while,’ Kang Yoon-Soo thought as he looked at the drug-filled cigar, before taking it and placing it in his mouth.

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“What are you doing?” Shaneth asked in surprise, snatching the cigar from his mouth.

Kang Yoon-Soo stared at her indifferently and asked, “Why?”

“You don’t even smoke, but now you’re suddenly trying to smoke drugs?” Shaneth argued, her brow creasing.

“It’s to empty my head,” Kang Yoon-Soo answered.

“You’ll end up addicted! What will you do if you turn into an addict who can’t live without drugs?” Shaneth exclaimed, glaring at Kang Yoon-Soo.

“I was able to stop taking it without issues,” Kang Yoon-Soo said indifferently.

“Says the bastard who drinks every chance he gets?” Henrick chimed.

The man cackled at Henrick’s words and said, “You can’t quit drinking, but you’re telling me that you quit taking drugs? You’re crazy.”

“It’s harder to quit drinking,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“How so?” the man asked. Kang Yoon-Soo’s words had piqued his curiosity.

“Your head will hurt because of withdrawal symptoms if you quit drugs, but drinking will give you a headache immediately.
That’s why it’s harder to quit drinking,” Kang Yoon-Soo explained.

“Hmm… that’s a deep answer someone normally wouldn’t provide,” the man said, looking at Kang Yoon-Soo with interest.

Suddenly, cheers came from the center of the main hall, and the man clapped his hands as if he had been waiting for that very thing.
He exclaimed, “It’s starting!”

A masked man pulled a tall, shackled woman onto the stage.
The woman’s neck was in chains, but her eyes were filled with rebelliousness.

“They say she’s a member of the White Lion Clan.
She joined our clan to spy and collect information on us, and five of our guys died to that bitch,” the man explained.

“What do they plan to do on stage?” Shaneth asked.

“You will see soon enough,” the man replied.

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The crowd sent unimaginable insults and curses toward the woman on the stage, throwing food waste and booze bottles.
However, the woman remained steadfast despite the insults hurled at her.

“Listen! A show you would never be able to see in the outside world will soon start!” the masked man said in a high-pitched, squeaky voice that resembled a clown’s.

“Our lives are difficult, and everyone has it bad.
Both our minds and our bodies suffer whenever we kill and steal.
But do you guys know? Do we have a body part that never feels pain?” the masked man asked.
He rolled up his sleeve and pinched his elbow, adding, “Look! Even if you pinch the flesh on your elbow, all you feel is a little sting and that’s it! Hmm… Maybe it would if you cut it with a knife though… Ah! Here’s a better example.
You don’t feel any pain when you cut your nails, right?” He was quite talented at getting the crowd’s attention.

“But! What if we could make someone feel pain even from those body parts? They would feel their flesh being torn apart whenever we cut their nails one by one! Doesn’t it excite you just hearing about it?” the masked man exclaimed, taking out a small jewel from his pocket. The jewel had a bright orange glow, just like a lamppost. He gleefully announced, “This is a magic stone that can manipulate the pain people feel! It’s a very rare and expensive item, and we’ll focus all of the pain points of this bitch into one place!”

“Pain point? What the hell are you talking about?” one clan member shouted.

The masked man smiled as he explained, “It means we can make one part of her body very sensitive and feel immense pain!”

The crowd became excited upon hearing about the new style of torture, and their murmurs filled the entire hall.

“Where should we make this bitch feel pain from? Shall we focus all her pain points into her feet so she can’t walk ever again? Or should we focus it all in her eyelids so she’ll get a taste of hell whenever she blinks? Which part do you guys want?!” The masked man fired up the crowd.

The crowd was now hyped up, and various shouts suggesting different body parts filled the hall with all sorts of shameful and vile suggestions that were sure to affect the woman.

“Everyone here is… crazy…” Shaneth said, looking at Kang Yoon-Soo with pleading eyes.
Her eyes conveyed her desire to immediately run over to the stage and rescue the woman.
However, Kang Yoon-Soo just stared at the stage indifferently.

“There, there, calm down! There are plenty of good suggestions, but don’t you think the breasts or the ass are far too common? Will you be excited and satisfied if we use this rare magic stone on something as obvious as that?” the masked man asked.
He clicked his tongue and let out a laugh as he took out a steel pair of scissors from his pocket.

A quick-witted clan member cheered loudly.
All of the veins on his neck stood up as he shouted, “The hair! The place to focus all her pain into is her hair!”

The masked man gently brushed the woman’s hair and said, “Exactly! What do you think would happen if she felt pain whenever her hair was cut? It would hurt as if she were on the verge of death if I cut her hair strand by strand.
Hmm… If we were to make a comparison… Maybe it would hurt like having a finger chopped off? But did you know? Hundreds of strands of hair would be cut every time the scissors are used. That means she would feel pain equivalent to having hundreds of her fingers getting chopped off! Oh my! It’s gonna hurt!”

The masked man gripped the magic stone and crushed it with his hand.
A red hue flowed out of the stone and sank into the woman’s hair. For the first time, the woman’s face turned pale.

“Now, welcome to our salon! You’re now going to get your hair cut in front of hundreds of audience members.
Can you tell us how you feel?” the masked man asked the woman as he grabbed a handful of her hair.

The woman closed her eyes and trembled, saying, “I will definitely… pay you back for this shame…”

“Hahaha! Look at that bitch trembling! She’s already tamed and it makes me want to torture her more!”

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“Just shave her already! Kehehehe!”

Shaneth could not bear to watch the horrific show anymore and stood up from her seat, but the man suddenly asked, “Miss, why don’t you take a seat?”

“Are you telling me to keep watching this and stay still?” Shaneth retorted sharply.

“Then why did you burn down someone else’s clan’s basement? You should’ve just quietly stayed asleep,” the man replied.

Shaneth flinched as she looked at her surroundings.
That was when she realized that they were surrounded by people glaring at them with murderous intent.
A few of the other clan members started to slowly look toward the party, and the man leisurely crossed his legs as he took a puff of his cigar.

“Ha, I was surprised too.
The ones we kidnapped actually ended up blowing up the gas chamber and came all the way up here.
You were bound up in chains if I remember correctly.
Well, aren’t you guys masters of escape?” the man remarked as he took another puff.

Henrick observed the man with his keen sight, as the man lightly dusted off the ashes from his cigar and said in a chilling voice, “The name is Yu Si-Do, and I’m the leader of the Black Tiger Clan, but you don’t have to remember that.
You’ll die by my hands anyway.”

The man’s words gave the party chills and goosebumps.
They had finally managed to escape, but to think that they had met up with the boss of the enemy instead. The shouts of the crowd grew louder, and the chilling atmosphere engulfed the table.

“Why did you decide to impersonate us? I had no choice but to take care of you because you made the leader of Sunset Glass come all the way here.
Especially that expressionless guy… It sounds like we would’ve gotten along quite well.
It’s a shame,” the man said calmly as he took another puff.

“…Why didn’t you capture us immediately, instead choosing to casually approach us first?” Shaneth asked with a grimace.

“No reason.
It’s just more fun this way.
It feels awesome to see the faces of other people when you hide your identity and reveal that you’re the clan leader later, you know?” Yu Si-Do playfully remarked as he hummed and threw away the cigar he was smoking.
He resumed his habit of biting down on his finger—literally consuming his own flesh. The sight of Yu Si-Do munching his own finger despite the blood dripping from it made him look like a madman.

“You… You’re mad,” Shaneth said, watching Yu Si-Do eat his own finger with disgust.

“Munch… Me? Why? There are a lot of mad people in the world, so don’t you think someone like me can be considered normal? Ah, this finger? You don’t have to worry about it.
My body regenerates even if I munch on it,” Yu Si-Do said casually.

“Hmm… then is it the same for your heart?” Iris asked as she stretched her hands out, staring at Yu Si-Do.

Yu Si-Do kept eating his middle finger as he stared at Iris and asked, “Have we met somewhere before?”

“Yu Si-Do,” Kang Yoon-Soo interrupted him.
He said, “The reason why I let myself get kidnapped was to cooperate with you.”

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“You’re the mad one.
It wasn’t enough that you impersonated us and burned down our clan’s basement, but now you want to cooperate?” Yu Si-Do replied, staring at Kang Yoon-Soo. 

“We had no choice but to burn the place down, or else you would’ve killed all of us,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

“I plan to kill all of you anyway, so why should I agree to that?” Yu Si-Do asked.

“Because you can’t overcome this crisis without my help,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Yu Si-Do stared at Kang Yoon-Soo with a confused expression and asked, “Crisis?”

The crowd’s boos grew louder and some of them shouted, “When is the torture going to start?!”

“Are you planning to start after we all die from waiting? Damn it!”

However, the masked man did not use his scissors; rather, he threw them away from the stage and shouted, “Ladies and gentlemen! The real show begins now! I want you all to pay attention to your surroundings!”

The clan members confusedly looked around them.
Suddenly, some other clan members drew their weapons and stabbed their comrades.

“Kuheok!”

“Why? Why are you attacking us?!”

“He’s not one of us! It’s a spy!”

However, it was too late.
The clan members could not differentiate between friend or foe, but the spies could.
The Black Tiger Clan members started to be one-sidedly massacred as the situation spiraled down into chaos.

It was at the very moment that everything was descending down to madness that the masked man took off his mask.
The face that revealed itself was impossible for anyone who was a member of the Black Tiger Clan to not recognize.

“H-han Se-Hyun?!”

“It’s the leader of the White Lion clan?! Why the hell did that guy appear on the stage?!”

Han Se-Hyun smirked as he looked at Kang Yoon-Soo. ‘Everything went according to your plan,’ he thought to himself.

“There’s no special reason,” Han Se-Hyun replied to the crowd as his eyes met Yu Si-Do’s, while the latter’s face crumpled with anger.
He continued, “No reason.
It’s just more fun this way.
It feels awesome to see the faces of other people when you hide your identity and reveal that you’re the clan leader later, you know?”