How to Survive in a Fusion Punk

Chapter 12 – Good Neighbor

The grenade was a Seoyul Grenade.

If you’re a true man of Daehan, you’ve probably thrown one by the 3rd or 4th week of training.

It’s about the size of a tangerine, light in weight, but its firepower is well-known through countless videos.

It boasts an outstanding performance for its size, with a lethal radius of 15 meters and a danger radius of 50 meters.

Just to give you an idea of how dangerous it is: the instructors, who usually look like they could eat you alive with just a glance, turn into angels on grenade training days.

The goal is to keep trainees relaxed so that there are no mistakes. (And to prevent any suicidal tendencies, too.)

Of course, even then, the trainees remain tense.

From the moment the instructors demonstrate, holding their breath, to the trainees gripping the grenade, throwing it, crouching, and hearing the explosive sound up close.

Those tense and focused moments stay etched in their minds long after the training ends.

Jin’s reaction was almost purely reflexive.

“Grenade in the room!!!!”

He didn’t even know how he moved.

When he came to his senses, he realized he was crouching on the opposite side of the display case.

And with his right hand, he was pressing down hard on the shopkeeper’s neck.

Bang!

The next moment, the explosion rattled his ears.

The shrapnel from the grenade scattered throughout the shop, and the sound of breaking glass filled the air.

“Uwaaaah!!”

The shopkeeper, Brof, whose head was forced down by Jin, screamed.

What was going on here?

There wasn’t even a chance to ask that, nor was there time to glance up and check on the situation.

This time, gunfire started pouring in.

Tatatat!!!

As the shop was torn apart once again, Jin and Brof dropped flat to the ground.

Naturally, their eyes met.

“Where to hide?!”

Jin shouted, and despite the chaos, Brof managed to understand him.

“Over here!”

Crawling on the floor, debris from glass and broken cement rained down on them.

Crash!

The indiscriminate gunfire shattered the lights above.

Now, nothing was visible.

Jin was simply following the old man’s rear end as they scrambled.

“Here! Over here!”

Brof, who had reached the end of the display case and into what seemed like a staff room, gestured urgently.

Luckily, the door was open.

“Close it!”

Jin, following behind, shouted and acted on his own.

The door slammed shut behind them, and the gunfire outside grew fainter.

After stepping away from the door, Jin spoke.

“Old man, are you some kind of monster? Why the hell are they spraying bullets just to catch you?”

“You! Who the hell are you?”

“I’m a customer.”

“Really a customer? Not some Haripa gang?”

Jin already knew.

This was all tangled up with some lowlife.

“Haripan or whatever, I don’t care. Do you have anything useful for a weapon? This is a gun shop, isn’t it?”

“Are you planning to fight? Do you even know how many people are outside?”

“What, you think I’m just gonna sit here watching porn or something? We don’t have time, give me something—hurry up!”

At Jin’s urging, Brof quickly got up and started opening metal cases around him.

“What do you need?”

“Anything!”

“…Damn. My stuff, to this rookie…”

Soon, a piece of metal flew through the air.

Jin caught it, and it turned out to be a rough-looking rifle.

The barrel was thick, and it had a forward grip, somewhat like an M4 but a little more futuristic?

Jin didn’t know much beyond that.

At that moment, Brof handed him two magazines.

“Do you know how to shoot?”

“Who do you think I am?”

Jin answered, attaching the magazines, just as the loud gunfire outside began to subside and footsteps could be heard approaching beyond the door.

There were more than just a few footsteps—at least ten.

And they were all armed with automatic weapons.

Can they win?

Jin, who was no stranger to fighting while getting shot at, wasn’t sure this time.

He had never been targeted by more than ten guns at once.

At that moment, he found himself missing the Steel Arms faction, who focused on hand-to-hand combat.

“Brof! You old bastard, did you die? If you’re dead, say something! I’ll kill you again if you’re not!”

A vicious voice echoed through the shop.

“We must have looked like shit to you, huh? That’s why you sold us out to those butter-tripped bastards, right? Why? Did you think your life would get easier if we got caught? Huh?”

Despite paying attention to the angry shouts, Jin was observing Brof’s face.

The old man’s face was twisted in disgust as he bore the blind accusations aimed at him.

Then came a voice.

“Maybe it would have been better if you had died just now… Instead, you’re still alive, dragging your miserable existence.”

In the next moment, Jin’s hand shoved Brof’s chest roughly, and before he could react, the sound of rapid gunfire pierced through the door.

The yellow streaks of bullets cut through the air as Jin darted behind a three-tier shelf.

He set his gun to single-fire, waiting for the barrage to stop, and when it did, he shot back without hesitation.

It wasn’t a warning shot.

In that short span of time, Jin’s eyes didn’t miss the outlines of figures beyond the perforated door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

With concise shots, someone collapsed.

“Shit!”

A surprised scream echoed.

Jin didn’t hesitate.

Instead of hiding behind the shelf again, he activated his mana circuits and charged straight for the door.

Energy surged through his body, like pressing a personal accelerator deep within him.

His steps were light, but the floor beneath him cracked as he moved.

Soon, his body was enveloped in a blue glow as he slammed into the door.

Boom!

The already fragile door shattered as Jin threw himself through, immediately switching his weapon to rapid-fire.

Without a second thought, he fired at the approaching enemies, the muzzle flaring.

In the moments where light and dark alternated every second, surprised, distorted, and confused faces flashed by.

By the time they realized what had happened, they were already collapsing in a pool of their own blood.

Leaving them behind, Jin ejected the spent magazine and charged forward.

His vision flickered briefly, but he could make out the positions of the remaining enemies in the faint flashes.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, a gang member aiming his gun at him appeared.

“Don’t come any closer, you bastard!”

The man panicked and fired as the blue glow reached him.

But Jin was faster.

Lowering his stance, he dodged the bullets and swung his rifle’s butt into the man’s knee.

“Aaargh!”

A scream erupted as his leg snapped like a twig.

The man fell, stiff and immobilized, as his rifle shot into the air from the recoil.

The wild shots scattered, and one of them hit someone else, causing another scream.

“Shoot straight! You idiot!”

“Turn on the lights! Turn on the lights!”

“Shut up! Shoot at the blue one!”

Chaos erupted, but it didn’t last long.

Jin, having reloaded, pulled the trigger again.

Ratatat!

The brief sound of gunfire hit his ears, and once again, several more enemies fell without a chance to react.

Only one enemy remained—the furthest from Jin, guarding the entrance.

Tick! Tick!

At the same time, his magazine ran dry.

Damn it.

Jin dove to the side just in time as bullets rained down where he had just been, grazing his thigh.

His teeth clenched.

His right leg felt like it was on fire.

Compared to a handgun, the rifle’s longer barrel and larger amount of powder provided more power, enough to take down even a rhinoceros in one shot.

Jin instinctively knew that if he had been hit in a vital spot, his life would have been in danger.

But he didn’t retreat.

Instead, he poured all his remaining mana into his body and pushed forward with full force.

“…?!”

The gang member’s gaze, peering through the sights, wavered.

The target began closing the distance like a shell.

And in a zigzag pattern.

An impossible change of direction, as if defying reason.

Superhuman strength.

The use of mana to enhance his movements made this impossible feat possible.

“Die-!”

The gang member fired late, but the bullet merely cut through the air, hitting the ground instead.

It wasn’t that Jin was faster than the bullet, but that the gang member’s eyes couldn’t keep up with Jin’s movement.

And in that moment.

A single breath.

The time it took for an exhale and an inhale.

Jin, after five sharp direction changes, stomped his foot hard.

The ground caved in, and his body seemed to defy gravity as it soared high.

A leap that felt like flying for an instant.

His leg, extended toward the sky, created a gust of wind as it fell.

Crash!

The gang member, with his heel slammed into his skull, collapsed, blood spraying from his eyes, nose, and mouth like a fountain.

He didn’t rise again.

“Phew.”

Jin exhaled heavily, looking around.

The commotion from the gunfire was enough to catch the attention of the surrounding crowd, and as soon as the people peering into the alley made eye contact with Jin, they scurried away in fear.

They must’ve feared that the chaos might spill over, but Jin himself had no thoughts of that.

He was just baffled that his new clothes were drenched in blood.

“What the hell…”

Jin mumbled to himself as he trudged toward the shop.

There, he found a man writhing in pain with a broken leg, and Brof, snarling at him.

“You damn bastard!”

The old man grumbled, kicking the side of the man repeatedly.

“Ah, ugh, aah!”

The man screamed each time, not from the pain of the kicks but from the excruciating pain in his leg.

“You’re supplying goods to a rival organization? Are you trying to get us caught?”

Brof’s kicks grew more intense.

Though they were clumsy movements, the anger behind them was palpable.

“The reason I cut ties with you is because you were feeding off of the young! You modified children under twenty! You erased their traumas! You repeated that and turned them into idiots!”

Jin furrowed his brows.

I really killed those guys too easily.

He couldn’t help but regret it.

“There is a line even in this filthy city. Halifa crossed it.”

As Brof said this, he snatched a gun from the ground.

Without a hint of hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The man’s head jerked violently, and a brass-colored shell casing clinked on the floor.

“Phew. Phew.”

Brof, out of breath, threw the gun aside.

For a while, he stared at the corpse with the blown-out head before letting out a shallow sigh and turning his gaze away.

“…Who the hell are you? You don’t look like just some average fighter.”

The words were clearly directed at Jin, but he didn’t answer.

At this moment, dopamine was bubbling up in his head.

[(Completed!) Good Neighbor]

The surge of experience points felt almost like a drug.

And that only made him angrier.

It felt like a fool being handed pocket money by a parent’s enemy.

Still, I should take what I can.

After all the trouble I’ve gone through.

Jin gathered his thoughts and reflected inwardly.

Unfortunately, he was still a little short on experience points to unlock a new star.

But considering that it had been less than a day since he learned about mana circuits, this was a significant achievement.

As Jin opened his eyes again, Brof shouted right in front of him.

“Are you deaf?!”

“Jeez, why are you shouting?”

“Because you didn’t answer! I asked five times. So, who the hell are you?”

“Ugh, seriously, old man! I’m a guest! You came highly recommended by Khalifa!”

Jin, fed up with the old man’s strange behavior, downgraded his title for Brof from “sir” to “old man.”

And then the old man muttered.

“…Khalifa, you say?”

Brof squinted, eyeing Jin with a newfound look.

“If that kid recommended you… then you must be a soloist. A rookie, huh? Never seen you before.”

“Ugh. Does my background matter right now? It’s not like I fought because someone recommended me, but this is a bit out of order…”

“Ah, uh, khrm.”

At Jin’s grumbling response, Brof awkwardly cleared his throat.

He seemed guilty, trying to avoid Jin’s gaze.

“Sorry about that. With all these Halifa bastards around, I’ve gotten paranoid… I’m not normally like this.”

After mumbling for a while, Brof finally extended a wrinkled hand.

“I’m Brof. Thanks. You saved my life.”

Jin took his hand.

“My name’s Jin. I’ll be the solo king one day, so don’t forget my face.”

Finally, with introductions out of the way, the two glanced around.

“By the way, what are you going to do with the shop in this state?”

“Can’t be helped. With those Halifa bastards going crazy, I didn’t expect them to pull such a stunt. It’s my own fault for not seeing it coming.”

“And revenge?”

“That guy with the broken leg? He’s the boss. This is the end of the Halifa gang. As for the other small fry, we have ways to deal with them. No need to worry about that.”

Brof’s gaze was resolute.

Well, if you’re running a gang in the downtown area, you’re not exactly ordinary.

But didn’t he just scream and all that?

Jin adjusted his evaluation of Brof in his mind.

Likes adult videos, a bit cowardly, but somehow a convincing gun-slinging old man.

Then, Brof spoke.

“Sorry for the late hospitality. Want to look around now, even though it’s late?”

“Here?”

Jin glanced at the broken guns nearby and muttered.

Brof chuckled before speaking.

“Who said anything about here? What you see on the outside isn’t all there is. Follow me. I’ll show you some special equipment.”