Sovereign of the Infinite Clones [Novel] Chapter 436

My Alter Ego’S Path To Greatness Chapter 436

***

Harley’s Modern Diary (3)

A back alley in Daegu, far from the main streets, with all sorts of junk scattered everywhere.

Poorly lit and gloomy, it was the kind of place an ordinary citizen wouldn’t even think of setting foot in.

No matter how much public security in Korea had improved recently, there were limits.

The authorities might have measures in place for ordinary crimes, but anyone who stepped into a place this blatantly belonging to the underworld—even out of curiosity—could never be guaranteed safety.

Especially in areas outside Seoul, where the Blood Alliance’s influence was not as strong.

“Heheheh, that idiot. Heard he blew everything again after pulling that shit.”

“Seriously? Again?”

“Ah, shut up. I’m already in a shitty mood.”

“I knew this would happen. People oughta live decent lives. What’s the point of always chasing after a quick score?”

But to the residents of the underworld, even such a dangerous environment was simply part of everyday life.

A group of young men walked through the alley, laughing noisily with flushed faces that suggested they were drunk.

“I said shut up, didn’t I? And what the hell do you mean by ‘decent’? What are guys like us supposed to—”

Perhaps because they were drunk out of their minds and too absorbed in their conversation to pay attention to their surroundings…

Thud—

The young man leading the group failed to notice the figure approaching from the opposite direction and collided shoulder-first with him.

“Ah, shit! What the hell? What’s this guy doing?”

“Keheheheh! What the hell’s that bastard doing?”

“Pfft hahaha.”

As if he had slammed into a metal pole, the young man went sprawling onto the ground.

He grimaced and staggered back to his feet.

Thanks to the alcohol dulling his senses, the pain wasn’t particularly severe.

But that wasn’t the important issue right now.

The men who had already been muttering and making snide remarks were now openly pointing and laughing at him, and the anger that had already reached its limit finally blew its lid.

“You bastard, who the hell are you to bump into someone like—”

“Huh? Me?”

Just as he glared at the man in front of him and began venting his anger, a large figure slowly emerged from the darkness of the alley.

“Geez, sorry about that. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had to worry about things like that.”

He explained that people usually moved out of his way as soon as they saw him, so he hadn’t expected to actually bump into anyone.

The large man in sunglasses politely apologized and casually scratched the back of his head.

“You think an apology makes it all good? Fine, then pay for my medical bills.”

“Yeah, yeah. And those clothes and sunglasses look pretty nice too, so leave those behind.”

Unfortunately for them…
The young men were already so drunk that their reason had been completely numbed, and they weren’t about to accept his sincere apology.

The man in front of them clearly had an extraordinary appearance, but to members of the Poison Sword Sect—the largest organization in Daegu’s underworld, looks weren’t particularly important.

“You should consider yourself lucky. Back in the day, things wouldn’t have ended with just this.”

“Heh-heh. We’d have broken your shoulder first.”

“Back then, you’d be lucky if you even walked away with your life.”

Even though they belonged to an organization, anyone who casually wandered around such a dangerous area while drunk couldn’t possibly be an ordinary bunch of punks.

An aura imbued with supernatural power shimmered around their bodies, as if warning that they would beat him half to death the moment he resisted.

None of them were particularly powerful, but the mere presence of supernatural abilities was enough to make the danger obvious.

And so, the man—Harley, who had come here based on information brought by his newly recruited employees—found himself surrounded and threatened by a group of thugs who were mostly Returnees.

He smacked his lips thoughtfully.

‘Tsk. This is another interesting experience. I suppose it’s partly because I changed my body’s structure to match Manager Ha’s appearance and suppressed my aura as much as possible.’

Even so, most people would at least feel an instinctive sense of unease around him. But it seemed the alcohol had completely numbed not only their reason, but even their instincts.
Given the situation, there was only one thing he could do.

“Haah… Can’t be helped. I didn’t really want to practice medicine illegally.”

Contrary to his words, he grinned brightly and eagerly rolled up his sleeves, preparing to begin his physical therapy.

“Oh? You wanna fight?”

“Let’s break his limbs first.”

There was no need to go into detail about what happened next.

“Gaahk…”

“Cough! Cough!”

It hadn’t been long before the men who had been so full of themselves were scattered throughout the alley like crumpled pieces of trash.

They couldn’t have blended in better with the surroundings.

“You… You bastard! Do you even know who we are?! You dared mess with the Poison Sword Sect in Daegu! You won’t get away with this!”

As Harley looked over the scene with satisfaction, one of them, who appeared relatively unharmed, shouted furiously.

Perhaps the carefully administered treatment had taken effect, as the man’s drunkenness seemed to have completely disappeared.

‘Maybe it’s because this is his first treatment. Looks like he’s not fully recovered yet.’

Judging by the way he was talking, the man seemed to need some additional treatment.

Harley nodded and strode toward the patient, who still seemed remarkably lively despite being sprawled on the ground.

“Eek! M-my own brother is an executive of the Poison Sword Sect! You think my brother’s just gonna sit still if something happens to me?!”

Harley’s footsteps abruptly stopped.

Thinking his threat had worked, the man brightened and continued shouting.

“You’ve heard the rumors about Black Yaksha Kwon Cheolyong, right? Black Yaksha, our boss! My own brother, Jang Tae-hyeok, serves him directly! If anything happens to me, he’ll come straight here… Huh? The boss himself will come after you! If you understand what I’m saying, then you’d better—”

“Oh? Looks like I came to the right place!”

A carefree voice interrupted his rambling. The man, still lying on the ground, stared blankly upward.

With the dim alley lights behind him, the figure’s face was cast in shadow.

His teeth gleamed brightly. He looked genuinely delighted, as though he’d just struck the jackpot.

‘…Shit. I think I seriously fucked up.’

Only then did the effects of the treatment begin to wear off.

His reason and instincts, which had completely vanished, finally returned and began doing their jobs properly.

“I was actually looking for that guy. Since fate brought us together, how about you show me the way?”

Unfortunately, by then, it was already far too late.

***

The Blood Alliance had existed as an organization in Korea’s underworld for more than fifteen years.

Although most of its forces had now moved to Seoul to solidify their influence there, the Blood Alliance had originally been more like a federation whose crews were spread throughout different regions of the country.

BANG!

“Damn it! These rotten pieces of trash…! They’re supposed to be a law enforcement organization, yet instead of hunting vampires, they’ve become those bastards’ dogs? What a fucking disgrace!”

As such, it wasn’t particularly surprising that the Blood Alliance had caused various problems throughout the country or repeatedly clashed with local underworld factions that had established themselves as the powers of their respective regions.

If anything, the number of casualties resulting from those conflicts was probably far greater than the damage publicly known.

Given the nature of vampires, harvesting blood through struggles in the underworld was far more convenient and efficient than obtaining blood through legitimate means in the public world.

‘This is bad. Really bad. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been discovered yet, but considering those persistent Guardians, it’s only a matter of time before I’m exposed.’

Kwon Cheolyong, the boss of Daegu’s Poison Sword Sect, Black Yaksha, was one of those who had developed a bitter history with the Blood Alliance during that process.

At the time, it hadn’t been particularly difficult for him to defend Daegu’s territory against the Blood Alliance’s scattered forces.

But unfortunately, many of the people he cared for like brothers had been sacrificed in the process.

“Hah! What shameless bastards. Did they really think that just because they’re stepping into the public eye now, they can suddenly live under the sun? The stench of blood they spilled in the past is still fresh! How the hell do they expect anyone to accept that?”

When the Blood Alliance conquered Korea’s underground world and became the rulers of the night, he had reluctantly submitted to them.

One way or another, this world was ultimately governed by the law of strength.

No matter how much resentment he harbored, he had thought that once an overwhelming difference in power had been established, he had no choice but to accept the outcome…

‘But this is different. You bastards were the ones who broke the rules of the underworld first.’

They stood in the public eye while controlling crimes committed in the underworld.

Could they even still be considered members of the same underground organization?

They might as well be another police force.

For someone who pursued the underworld so thoroughly, joining hands with outside forces and betraying the Blood Alliance was by no means unjustified.

‘Damn it. Everything went wrong. The bombing failing doesn’t matter, but I never expected them to immediately subdue those celebrity bastards who caused the commotion and hand them over to the Returnee Association. Instead of dealing with a problem directly connected to them themselves, they dumped it on the investigative authorities. Do those bastards have no pride as the rulers of the night?’

Eliminating Lycoris through the bombing had been a plan that would have been nice if it succeeded, but wouldn’t matter if it failed.

His true target was the plan that came afterward. If the celebrities who had just clashed with them were all assassinated, who would the public suspect first?

‘If the bombing had succeeded, one hundred percent. Even if it didn’t, they’d immediately think of Lycoris—the victims—and the vampires behind them.’

There had been plenty of witnesses, so denying it wouldn’t help.

Once the additional measures he had prepared were added to the mix, public opinion would begin to burn.

Then the government and the Association would inevitably find it burdensome to continue supporting them.

His plan had been to gradually destroy the trust the Blood Alliance had built, sow discord, and completely destroy their foundation in the public world.

“Damn it. All the plans I’ve worked on until now have gone up in smoke. Now I have nothing to say to him…”

Kwon Cheolyong bit his lip as he thought of his secret collaborator.

The assassination—the most important step of the plan—was something beyond his capabilities.

Even though he himself was a powerful individual who had reached the Master realm, secretly assassinating the Awakened celebrities who represented the entertainment industry, including Cheon Seolhyang, was simply impossible.

To be honest, he wasn’t even confident he could defeat her in a straightforward fight. Naturally, the one assigned to assassinate them had to be another being with sufficient ability.

[There’s no need to explain. I’ve already figured out the whole situation.]

“Gasp! When?”

Just like now, when even Master-level Kwon Cheolyong hadn’t noticed the shadow sneaking up behind him until it was already there.

[Tch. This is a complete failure. If it weren’t for the Southern Seoul Branch, where the Thunder Emperor is stationed, I could’ve done something somehow.]

The shadow slowly shook its head, conveying its words not through a physical voice, but by vibrating the air itself.

Even though he specialized in assassination and stood on the verge of Transcendence, he wasn’t confident he could deceive the senses of a true Transcendent and kill them unnoticed without actually breaking through that wall.

“…But there’s still a chance. We can’t keep them there forever in the first place—”

[The timing has already been missed. It would be better to come up with a new plan.]

The shadow (Black Shadow) clicked his tongue inwardly as he looked at Kwon Cheolyong, who still couldn’t let go of his lingering hopes.

He had chosen the man after weighing various conditions and deciding that he seemed fairly useful.

But the more he looked at him, the less he seemed like someone worth keeping around for long.

‘I should take care of this business and dispose of him afterward. If I keep dragging this kind of man along, he’ll only leave a longer trail behind.’

Now that the Buncheon Society had completely withdrawn from Korea, this was the perfect opportunity to infiltrate the country.

For their Black Dragon Society, which was on the verge of extinction in China, where their enemies had completely seized control, the best way to survive was to destabilize the Blood Alliance, which controlled this small peninsula, and take advantage of the chaos that followed.

‘But with our collaborator turning out like this, we’ll only be putting ourselves in danger.’

If they handled things clumsily and ended up being attacked by both the Blood Alliance and the Buncheon Society, everything would be over.

In that sense, they needed to find a more capable individual who could handle things with greater certainty…

Knock, knock—

“B-Big Brother. It’s Taehyeok. I have an urgent report to make…”

At that moment, the voice of one of his trusted men came from outside the office.

After briefly exchanging glances with Black Shadow, Kwon Cheolyong irritably shouted toward the door.

“I’m busy right now! Come back later!”

“It’s urgent. For some reason, a Guardian investigator suddenly barged into our territory, and there’s no reasoning with him. If we don’t deal with this immediately…”

But the urgent response that followed made Kwon Cheolyong frown.

Only he knew about the plan within the organization.

Everyone else had merely cooperated indirectly without knowing what he was actually doing.

And yet, he’d never expected their trail to be discovered this quickly.

Having grasped the situation, Black Shadow slowly nodded before melting into the darkness of the room.

“…Come in.”

Click—

The moment the barrier on the security door was deactivated in response to Kwon Cheolyong’s command…

“Sniff, sniff! I smell it! I smell it! The scent of a conspiracy is practically overflowing from this place! Kahahahah!”

The door swung wide open, and a strange outsider barged inside.

A large man wearing a suit, with slicked-back hair that made him look like nothing more than a street thug.

Kwon Cheolyong, startled, hurriedly turned toward his subordinate, Tae-hyeok, but…

“…I’m sorry, Big Brother.”

“Y-you…! How did you…!”

The man standing by the doorway merely hung his head, his face a complete mess.

And just as Kwon Cheolyong trembled with rage at the betrayal…

Harley strode into the office and smiled brightly as he looked toward the darkness in the corner.

“Wow~ Now that’s quite a catch! I came to rough up the guy who carried out the attack, just like our capable new recruits told me to, and it just so happens that the mastermind is here too!”

Immediately afterward. The shadow in the darkness swiftly attempted to escape.

[Urgh!]

“Whoa there! I just got here. Where do you think you’re going?”

If he had still been far away, perhaps there might have been a chance.

But once he had entered Harley’s field of vision, there was no way for him to escape.

KABOOOM—!

The office, surrounded by sturdy barriers, exploded apart in an instant.

The shadow desperately tried to slip away like a loach, while Harley pursued it like a hawk.

After a brief sequence of events, the hunter finally seized his prey by the scruff of the neck, a savage grin spreading across his face.

‘That was close. I might’ve actually lost him if things had gone differently. Guess I got lucky.’

It seemed all of the shadow’s abilities had been poured into covert operations rather than direct combat, because his escape skills were beyond imagination.

If Harley had barged straight inside like he usually did, smashing everything in his path, he really might have lost him.

‘It’s always best to be a good person.’

Who would’ve thought that the method he’d chosen to minimize the commotion while in ‘Manager Ha Mode’ would lead to this result?
It was all thanks to the physical therapy he’d so willingly provided to those young men he met on the street.

And so, Harley successfully earned another batch of violence points today. Just as he always did.