Heart Blood – Part 1
It was strange.
Why Seong Huiyeong?
Why not the chairman of Shinwha Group?
Seong Huiyeong’s influence had grown recently, but it still couldn’t compare to the chairman of Shinwha Group.
After all, the chairman was Level 8.
‘Think later.’
Right now, saving a life came first.
I grabbed the golf bag I had stashed in a corner of the training room.
“Let’s go.”
We moved immediately.
Manager Choi and I took the Red Cougar, while Seo Woojin drove his own aircar as we headed to Geumo Hospital in Songpa District.
On the rooftop, Secretary Kim and the newly appointed Chief Secretary Kim were waiting for us.
Their faces were grim.
“You’re here.”
“How is the chairman?”
“Not well at all.”
It didn’t seem to be a secret.
A glance downward revealed a swarm of broadcasting station vehicles.
Even independent streamers were on-site, pushing their luck by flying drones—only to have them shot down by aerial defense drones.
“What happened?”
I asked as I followed Chief Secretary Kim.
“She was poisoned.”
“Isn’t there someone who tastes her food?”
“Yes. The food taster is separate. The food taster was fine, but the chairman had a seizure the moment she ate. The attending secretary responded immediately, but after taking an elixir, her condition worsened…”
I knew it.
The details had to be confirmed, but it was just as expected.
We arrived at the VVIP suite, the deepest part of the hospital’s main building.
Superhuman doctors, sweating bullets, rushed to greet us.
“How is the chairman?”
“She went into cardiac arrest. We’re performing CPR.”
“What?”
Chief Secretary Kim burst through the door.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
A muscular superhuman doctor was performing CPR, drenched in sweat.
With every compression, the frail body bounced from the sheer force—his weight and mana were being used to deliver enough impact.
There was no other choice.
A Level 7 superhuman had such immense durability that ordinary shocks were absorbed and dispersed.
Only the force equivalent to industrial machinery could reach her heart.
“D-Damn it! What the hell is going on?! She was fine just a moment ago!”
“I-I’m sorry. We’re doing our best.”
“Your best? Your beeeest?! If the chairman dies, you all die too! Have you forgotten who paid for your scholarships, your salaries, and made you superhumans? If you don’t want to be buried with her, save her at all costs!”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
A bald doctor hurried over, clutching a golden crystal vial.
An elixir.
They had already failed once, but with nothing else working, they were going to try again.
“Stop.”
I reached out and halted them.
Chief Secretary Kim snapped.
“Are you out of your mind?! The elixir made her worse, and now you want to use it again?”
“We have our hospital’s secret technique. If we use the elixir to create the potion of—”
“The Elixir of Immortality? If you use that, the chairman will die instantly. Take it back.”
“These people…”
A vein bulged on Chief Secretary Kim’s neck.
Before he could explode, I spoke up.
“Secretary. Summon necromancers. Right now.”
“Necromancers?”
“There’s no way to cure the chairman at the moment. But if we have a necromancer, we can at least prevent her condition from worsening.”
I checked the time.
“Five minutes. Five minutes.”
I pointed at my watch for emphasis.
“A necromancer must arrive within five minutes and inject mana. If they do, the chairman lives. If not, she dies.”
Five minutes.
Too short—barely enough time to act.
Chief Secretary Kim gulped.
Then, without hesitation, he touched his earpiece and began issuing orders.
“Alert the security team. Deploy all of Team 4 to the VVIP suite immediately.”
“Notify Geumo Security. This is an emergency. Summon Team 4 from Division 2, Division 4, and Division 8 to Geumo Hospital.”
“All directors of Geumo Funeral Services, gather at once.”
Swift and precise.
From the way he mentioned ‘Team 4,’ it seemed like they had superhumans trained in necromancy.
The number 4 was an unlucky superstition, but in this world, even superstitions held power—it couldn’t be ignored.
Soon, Security Team 4 arrived.
The superhumans saluted the unconscious Seong Huiyeong, then turned to Chief Secretary Kim.
“Black Tiger Swordmaster? What should we do?”
“Stop CPR and inject mana into her brain.”
“Her brain? That would—”
“It’s fine. She won’t end up in a vegetative state. I’ll take responsibility.”
“Hah…”
Chief Secretary Kim let out a long sigh.
Then, clenching his teeth, he looked back and forth between me and Seong Huiyeong.
“I’ll trust you, Black Tiger Swordmaster. Let’s hope for another miracle. Agent Kim Sunyoung, Agent Park Jihoo, inject mana into the chairman’s brain.”
“What?”
“Did I mishear?”
“There’s no time. I’ll take responsibility. Even if it fails, you won’t be held accountable. Just do it.”
The two agents hesitated, then stepped forward.
One was a necromantic soldier, the other a necromancer.
They stood on either side of Seong Huiyeong’s head and placed their hands upon her.
Beep—
The moment CPR stopped, a sharp, continuous alarm rang out.
Chief Secretary Kim clenched his eyes shut.
“We’ll begin.”
Mana was injected.
Cold, dark, deathly mana surged into the brain.
A moment of silence.
A suffocating stillness, akin to death itself.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.
The heart began to beat.
“Huh?”
“Phew!”
“Chairman!”
But only the heart was functioning.
Oxygen saturation levels rose, and breathing resumed—but that was all.
There were no signs of regained consciousness.
I approached Chief Secretary Kim and spoke firmly.
“Inject as much mana as possible. Just control it so it doesn’t seep out of her brain.”
“Understood. Will this help her recover?”
“No. This isn’t a cure. It’s only temporary. In a few days, her condition will start deteriorating again. In a month, even this won’t work.”
“T-Then what should we do?”
“We need to find the source.”
I had already said it.
This was both poison and a curse.
That meant we had to find the source of the curse, eliminate it, and retrieve the antidote they were undoubtedly carrying.
If we failed to do that, she would die.
The problem was finding the one who cast the curse.
‘They must be nearby.’
To administer poison, they had to be someone close.
And curses only worked within a certain range.
‘But.’
There was something to deal with first.
I recalled the situation from the game.
The chairman of Shinwha Group had also taken the elixir but didn’t die immediately.
He managed to hold on for a while, only to suffer multiple ambushes, assaults, and assassination attempts before he finally succumbed.
The first attack happened right after he was poisoned.
Right here, in the hospital.
By doctors and nurses.
Clatter, clatter.
“Excuse us. Coming through. Yes, just a moment.”
Two nurses pushed a medical cart down the hallway, followed by a doctor.
My eyes naturally locked onto the three of them.
It was the exact same setup.
Just like in the game, where the first assassination attempt took place.
[Bright Eyes] [Sixth Sense]
On the surface, nothing seemed off.
Even after switching my trait, there was nothing suspicious.
The cart contained only medical instruments, and all three were superhumans of the priest class, with traits related to healing and recovery.
There was just one thing.
[Holy Explosion]
A priest-class trait designed to counter mana explosions like mine.
Normally, that wouldn’t be unusual.
Holy Explosion only dealt fatal damage to evil beings like demons, ghosts, or undead.
For regular patients, it would actually cause dramatic recovery.
But what about Seong Huiyeong?
What if it was used on a patient suffering from the poisonous blood of an evil god?
“Hold on a moment.”
I stepped in front of them.
“Yes?”
The nurses looked up at me.
“Ahem, ahem.”
The doctor cleared his throat a few times.
“We need to draw arterial blood…”
The cart was stocked with plausible medical equipment.
Their ID badges identified them as staff of Geumo Hospital.
They were likely real employees.
The Old Father’s Cult had been infiltrating this land for centuries.
But they couldn’t fool me.
“Did Dark Jaguar send you?”
A title referring to the god they worshipped.
A subtle twitch in the eyes of the doctor and nurses.
But they managed to suppress their reaction.
They weren’t ready to believe they had been exposed.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Crash!
I slammed my fist into the medical cart.
The stainless-steel cart split apart, sending latex gloves, syringes, and alcohol swabs scattering everywhere.
The security team was already watching with suspicion.
Several of them melted into the shadows, cutting off the other end of the hallway.
I glared at the three and spoke firmly.
“Repeat after me. ‘Dark Jaguar is a pathetic wretch devoured by Feathered Serpent.’”
Both were famous Aztec gods.
In lore, they had been killed by the Old Father’s Cult during the conquest of the New World, forcing their followers to retreat deep into the jungles of South America.
That was the official story, but the truth was different.
The cult had embedded themselves within their ranks, slowly siphoning their power.
The three of them flinched.
They couldn’t say it.
They had disguised themselves as members of a minor sect, but their true faith lay with Dark Jaguar.
Blasphemy would result in immediate loss of divine power.
“D-Damn it! Kill him!”
“Die!”
A nurse lunged at me, syringe in hand, aiming for my neck.
Like that would work.
I kicked her away.
She spat blood as she flew backward.
The other nurse met the same fate.
She tried to swing the shattered remains of the cart at me, but I blasted her away with a mana explosion.
“You bastard…! Gah!”
The doctor was no different.
Weak body, no combat traits, no artifacts.
He should have surrendered quietly.
Instead, he resisted and took a hit from me before being captured by the security team.
They gagged him and locked his wrists and ankles in restraints to prevent suicide.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
He struggled, but it was pointless.
All three were dragged away by security.
Back in the VVIP suite, the hospital director was kneeling before Chief Secretary Kim.
Chief Secretary Kim was furious, while the director looked pale as death.
“I-I’m sorry! I had no idea! Chief Kim—I mean, that bastard! I didn’t know he was an assassin!”
“Director! Do you think ‘sorry’ is enough for this? If a single hair on the chairman was harmed, even your suicide wouldn’t be enough to settle this!”
“Enough.”
I calmed Chief Secretary Kim down.
This wouldn’t solve anything.
The assassination attempt using Holy Explosion was just the beginning.
The attacks and ambushes would continue until Seong Huiyeong was dead.
“The hospital director couldn’t have done anything. Those guys were Dark Jaguar fanatics.”
“Dark Jaguar? I thought they were wiped out.”
“They were, but remnants remain.”
“Why would those cult lunatics target our chairman?”
“I don’t know.”
I actually did.
The Saintess had orchestrated it.
If the Rights Alliance was behind the Seoul terror attack, then the Dark Jaguar Cult was responsible for the zombie outbreak.
Assassinating a major corporate leader was just one of their preparatory moves.
‘Geumo Group has been pretty active lately.’
The factions of Arcane Seoul rarely moved.
They had too much to lose and were too large to act recklessly.
But Seong Huiyeong?
She had crushed her brothers to seize the throne.
She had borrowed my strength to win a war.
She needed results to solidify her position.
So, she had mobilized Geumo Group’s full power to take down the Authority League and had even contributed 400 billion won to my redevelopment project.
For a brief moment, her influence nearly surpassed that of Shinwha Group.
They couldn’t let that slide.
To the point where they chose to target Seong Huiyeong over the Level 8 chairman of Shinwha Group.
“Hah…”
Chief Secretary Kim ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
“They must have used Blood of the Heart.”
The precise name was the Dark Jaguar’s Heart Blood.
During the Aztec War, Longinus, an apostle of the Old Father, had pierced Dark Jaguar’s heart with his spear.
The Heart Blood had spilled, and Longinus’s Spear had become a divine weapon.
The blood that clung to the spear had turned into a poison—a curse.
Dark Jaguar had managed to escape, but ultimately, he met his end.
At the very least, the Dark Jaguar Cult had retrieved Longinus’s Spear.
Because the Heart Blood on it was their last hope.
A hope to restore Dark Jaguar’s name and bring him back to life.
“That’s right. Now you understand what needs to be done, don’t you?”
“Yes.”
Chief Secretary Kim immediately issued a flurry of commands.
First, he expelled the hospital director and the entire medical staff.
Then, he fortified the defenses.
Only those he could trust were allowed to stay.
Barrier spells, defensive magic formations, Protector drones, and even protective golems—on top of all that, they constructed a human wall.
They cleared out every last person from the main building, promising them hefty compensation.
“Remove anyone with priest-class traits. You know why, don’t you? The Dark Jaguar fanatics and their abilities.”
“Of course.”
Dark Jaguar was also known by another title: The Mirror That Spews Smoke.
Fittingly, he ruled over prophecy and omniscience, illusions and shapeshifting, deception and theft.
Pretending to be from another sect, acting as if they worshiped a different god—that was easy for them.
Just like the three who had tried to enter earlier.
Even those who had worked at Geumo Group for years couldn’t be trusted.
“Phew…”
Chief Secretary Kim wiped the sweat from his forehead, his frustration evident.
Boom!
A deafening explosion erupted outside.
Even from here, the flames would be visible.
A surge of mana rippled through the air.
Chief Secretary Kim reflexively turned toward the disturbance, but I waved my hand.
“It’s a diversion. Watch the underground.”
“The underground? Team 2 Captain, check it out.”
“Yes, sir.”
A portion of the security team left.
When they returned, they were carrying a mutant rat the size of a calf.
“We found this in the underground parking lot. We’re blocking their attempts to infiltrate through the ventilation system.”
One look was enough.
It was a mutation.
No doubt a genetically engineered abomination.
“Hah…”
Chief Secretary Kim’s face looked drained as he turned to me.
“Black Tiger Swordmaster, will you help us? We can’t protect the chairman with our forces alone. We’ll issue a formal request.”
Grinding his teeth, he continued.
“Find the bastard who poisoned the chairman, the one who cast the curse. And when you do, rip them to shreds.
We’ll do whatever it takes to protect the chairman in the meantime.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
I looked down at Seong Huiyeong, lying on the hospital bed.
That face, always so full of confidence.
That smirk, always brimming with self-assurance.
Now, she was deathly pale.
Her lips had turned blue, her body lying still like a corpse.
I felt nothing.
Even if she died right now, it wouldn’t stir any emotion in me.
But, but.
The Saintess lurking behind all this.
The Old Father’s Cult that orchestrated the poisoning.
Just thinking about them made my blood boil.
I couldn’t let this slide.
Not a chance.
If I had the chance to ruin the Saintess’s plans, I would do anything.
“Leave it to me.”
So I said.
“I’ll get it done. No matter what.”
Just get it done?
No.
I would devour them whole, down to their very bones.
The superhuman who cast the curse.
The Dark Jaguar Cult hiding beneath the Han River.
Every last one of them.
–TL Notes–
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ooooooh kim is angry