MIM 1

His heart was pounding as he saw the infamous place in front of him. Before his eyes was a desolate landscape that he had only seen in pictures. Jae-seung adjusted his hat and calmed his excitement. In the afternoon when it should have been crowded with people, the deserted street was filled with a thick haze like smog.

Mangwol District.

Mangwol district of Yangtze City. The forgotten moon above the great river. A city of the abandoned. A lawless zone of crime and violence, a land where common sense and decency do not prevail. A realm of brutes that are uneducated and unable to fit in with society, and are therefore not given names or affiliations.

Jae-seung took long strides toward the large shade. The road gradually darkened as the sun set, giving an eerie vibe.

Broken down cars, crushed and rotting fruit, boxes with unknown contents and rolling trash, walls full of graffiti, and buildings that looked long abandoned with barricades… Wherever his gaze landed, it was filled with discarded things.

“What? This isn’t scary at all.”

Jae-seung muttered to himself out loud for no reason. They all said it was such an incredible place that would instill fear, but it was nothing. They said packs would rush in like wolves to tear him apart as soon as he stepped foot here, but not even a single pigeon was in sight.

There should be a reward for running away from home and coming here. Jae-seung was inwardly relieved as this arrogant thought crossed his mind. Then the sound of laughter drifted in on the sandy wind.

“…!”

Jae-seung instinctively crouched down and looked in the direction the sound came from. Holding his breath and straining his ears, he heard it more clearly. Someone was laughing heartily in the distance as if something was immensely amusing.

The sound of laughter echoing against the background of the desolate street felt somehow ominous. Driven by curiosity rather than fear, Jae-seung walked forward while holding his breath. He came all the way here because he wanted to vividly see what the Mangwol district is like. The nanny talked about the Mangwol district every time villains appeared in a children’s book. A district inhabited by creatures that looked human on the outside but were completely different inside. He was curious about the scenery she loathed so much.

Jae-seung began to walk quietly in the direction of the sound. He did not stop until various noises began mixing into the silence. The sound of dragging feet, knuckles cracking, diverse voices high and low, thin and thick. The sounds of things being swung and thrown. Rough breathing as if filled with rage…

“Do you think you’re something special?”

The hatred contained in the sarcastic remark was so clear that Jae-seung found himself suddenly close to the group. Peeking behind a container, he saw a small courtyard where people had gathered in a circle. Jae-seung held his breath to listen to their conversation.

“I don’t associate with people born here, it’s written all over your arrogant face! Well, it doesn’t make any difference that you are from the Mangwol district.”

The biggest man among them sneered and spat. Judging from the volume of his voice, he seemed to be the owner of the laughter heard from afar.

“Do you like me?”

Someone said sarcastically. It was a man whose head was hidden behind his large back. His soft, low voice carried an odd resonance that didn’t match the ominous atmosphere.

Jae-seung pressed his back against the opposite wall to see the person behind the voice.

The scene from this new angle appeared even more brutal. A man was surrounded by people with various weapons, including a small pocketknife, a piece of wood studded with nails, a short, sturdy-looking club, and even a fist as big as a head. Even though it was an unfavorable situation for anyone to see, the man did not shrink but continued speaking more leisurely.

“No, that’s not it. We could just live our separate lives, but you insisted on trying to get my attention.”

“Who wants attention from scum like you? I’m just going to teach you a lesson for your insolence!”

“If it’s a date invitation, I’ll have to refuse. Sorry, but I don’t date people with kids. Oh, wait. You don’t have a kid anymore, do you? Didn’t you starve them to death last month?”

“You son of a b1tch!”

The conversation, filled with violence and insults, ended when the big guy screamed and charged at the man. As the surrounding people scattered, the previously obscured man came into full view. Jae-seung’s eyes widened as he tried to get a better look.

He had expected a terrifying gaze and vile expression befitting the vulgar exchange. However, the face of the man nimbly dodging the incoming weapons appeared surprisingly youthful. Although his tall stature made him seem like a young man at first glance, his face told no lies – Jae-seung immediately realized he was around his older brother’s age of fourteen.

Moving at an astonishingly rapid pace, the boy evaded attacks raining in from all sides as if he had eyes in the back of his head, performing mid-air flips. By the time Jae-seung noticed the fist-sized concrete chunk in his hand, it was already flying through the air with a resounding crack after hitting someone’s skull.

It was more like an acrobatic performance than a fight. Jae-seung watched with sweaty palms as the bloody brawl unfolded. Flying flexibly and running lightly using the wall as a stepping stone, the boy picked up any debris from the building he could find and pelted it with a sling, aiming precisely at people’s heads. He swung his arms as hard as he could as if he wasn’t at all afraid of smashing someone’s head. Concrete coming at the speed of bullets exhibited a terrifying force that could take a life in an instant.

As they scattered one by one while evading the attacks, the boy’s movement path widened. Thanks to this, Jae-seung was able to witness it clearly. As his feet touched the ground, the boy stooped low, steadying his center of gravity, and threw concrete towards the head of the retreating bulk.

He was a hunting beast. Jae-seung gazed in awe at the very scene he had anticipated when choosing the Mangwol District as his destination.

“Ugh… Huff, I’ll kill you.”

Though he narrowly escaped with his life, the concrete shard had mercilessly grazed the big man’s cheek. Blood began to seep out of the man’s scalded skin. Unable to contain his anger, the big man continued to hit his thigh with his big fist. As if channeling his pain into anger, he contorted his body and cried out in agony with every flinch.

“Argh!”

Amid the big man’s screams, the boy’s groans mixed in. Unable to avoid several simultaneous attacks, the boy staggered as he was hit on the back with an iron rod. He lost his balance for a few seconds, and in that split second, a large figure rushed forward and grabbed the boy’s neck. Drenched in crimson blood, the big man seemed to have lost all reason as he roared savagely.

“D1e! You bastard, I’ll k1ll you.”

The big man who roughly pushed the boy down and climbed on top grabbed the boy’s neck with both hands. The boy’s neck looked frail within the giant’s grip, his hands twice its size. While the boy’s face with his eyes tightly closed was gradually losing color, people holding weapons approached one by one.

They were going to kill him.

Struck by this dreadful certainty, Jae-seung dashed forward without a second thought. Compelled by an intense urge to save this stranger he had just met, he recklessly burst onto the scene despite having just witnessed the bloody fight moments ago. It wasn’t because he was an innocent and naive young man who had never experienced anything dangerous, confined to his mansion.

This was because, by the age of ten, he had already faced death more times than he could count.

“Stop!”

Jae-seung screamed as loudly as he could muster from inside his stomach. Striding defiantly into the center of the open area with chin raised high, he unsurprisingly drew everyone’s attention. All eyes, even those of the big man who had been strangling someone moments ago, turned toward Jae-seung with dumbfounded expressions.

“It’s shameful for so many people to harass one person. If you want to fight, do it fair and square!”

With all eyes on him, Jae-seung flashed a satisfied smile and puffed out his chest. A gentle tone doesn’t work on brutes. Inflating his body to appear larger while projecting his voice loudly was the only way to get them to pretend to listen.

“… What? Is this your pet brat?”

Someone asked with an incredulous tone they couldn’t conceal. In the meantime, the boy who had swiftly escaped the big man’s grip looked at Jae-seung. The eyes that met his were wide open in apparent surprise, the irises a clear brown shade.

Jae-seung liked them. Enough to want to take him home.

“Let’s settle this with an arm wrestling match. I’ll be the referee.”

To save the boy, further physical confrontation had to be avoided. Jae-seung chose arm wrestling as the fairest and safest way to settle the dispute. Even before receiving a response, the brown-eyed boy lunged forward.

Then he hit the big man’s ear with a stone the size of his fist.

It sounded like a skull had been crushed… Jae-seung felt like he could hear it. The beating of his heart sounded in his ears, momentarily paralyzing his senses with dizziness. Jae-seung stepped back, his chest heaving, as he inhaled the metallic scent of blood. The man holding the blood-smeared rock grinned sadistically and immediately scanned the surroundings for his next target. Despite his clean-cut appearance and handsome features, his predatory gaze left no doubt that his eyes were those of a beast.

Jae-seung held his heaving chest and took a deep breath. The boy was just like the dark beast he had envisioned when imagining the Mangwol District.

A woman wielding a plank calmly approached him. Despite her comrade lying on the ground with a cracked skull, she didn’t spare a glance in that direction. Instead, she openly scrutinized Jae-seung from head to toe.

“This kid, he’s an Alpha.”

At those words, the thin man sitting leisurely in the back tilted his head. Numerous pairs of dangerous eyes scrutinized Jae-seung persistently. Though momentarily hesitant, Jae-seung soon lifted his chin defiantly and shouted.

“Rather than hurting me, it would be more beneficial for you to take me home?”

Before Jae-seung could finish speaking, a burst of laughter broke out. A deafening laugh covered the groans of the dying man. Unfortunately, he had already lost too much blood. Even if he were taken to the hospital right away, could he be saved? But his friends, unaware of the seriousness of the situation, were too busy finding it amusing.

“I knew this was fishy. He’s the young master of the Ma family after all.”

Then, the thin man who had been laughing to the point of tears in the corners of his eyes pointed at Jae-seung with narrowed eyes. Before he had time to react to those words, the hat that was covering his face sliced in two and fell to the ground.

If the knife had gone in just a little closer, his throat would have been cut off. The realization sent chills down his spine, causing him to forget about covering his face.