Chapter 311: Assaulted (1)

“Your orabi's late again,” said Baek Hyeon-Jeong.

Kang Eun-Yeong chuckled and dismissively waved her hand. "Eiii. Come on, Mom. He's a grown-up man, you know. He can come home late if that's what he wants."

“Oh, and grown-up men can't get into accidents? Is that it?” Baek Hyeon-Jeong scowled scarily.

Kang Eun-Yeong's tail was quickly tucked between her legs. "O-of course, that's possible, Mom. A-and you're so right! How could he be so thoughtless and not call us when it's already getting so late!"

Baek Hyeon-Jeong's expression softened just a tad.

Kang Eun-Yeong noticed that and cautiously asked, “Mom, should I call him?”

"Let him be. A man is trying to mind his own business out in the world, so his family calling him now won't look good."

Kang Eun-Yeong pouted deeply at that.

'If that's your stance, why did you even bring this topic up in the first place?!'

In any other circumstances, Kang Eun-Yeong might have run her mouth one more time only to get a scolding from her mother. Not this time, though. After how her mother revealed her near-brush with depression recently, Kang Eun-Yeong learned to swallow back certain words for her own health. Still, she had to say something.

“Mom, that dude is not the type to get into trouble, you know. Actually, he's the type to start trouble instead!”

“You shouldn't say that. Don't you know how rough and unpredictable life can be?”

"Mom, seriously now." Kang Eun-Yeong tutted like an old lady.

“...Listen, Eun-Yeong. No one can tell what might happen in life.”

"Hah?" Kang Eun-Yeong responded as if she just couldn't agree with her mother on this subject. "Mom, honestly, you worry too much. With a son as great as my oppa, isn't it fine to just let him be?"

“That's easier said than done, Eun-Yeong.”

"Let's look at that car situation from last time. I didn't say anything back then, but how could you nag him about some car even though you know how much money he has in his bank account? I thought you were being a little too unreasonable, Mom!"

“Uh-whew, you dummy...” Baek Hyeon-Jeong pounded her chest. “Did Jin-Ho earn that money himself? Did he?”

“N-no, but...”

“And it's the same story for you. If it wasn't for Jin-Ho or Chairman Hwang's help, do you think you could've made it big by yourself? Really?”

Kang Eun-Yeong's pouting got longer.

"Of course, I'm happy about my children being so successful, which means yes, I'm pleased about you, too. You probably don't know how proud and happy I am whenever you appear on TV, Eun-Yeong." Baek Hyeon-Jeong disregarded her daughter's pout and continued to speak in lamentation. "Even so, it's no good to mindlessly enjoy the fruits of your success as if it was your hard work that got you there. What I wish for isn't your success but for you two to become someone who can achieve success on your own."

“...I get what you're saying, Mom.”

"I'm not worried about you two being successful in life, Eun-Yeong. But I am worried about the fact that you two achieved success way too easily. When someone like that tastes failure, they usually fall into the pit of the abyss where it's difficult to come back, you see?"

“You don't have to worry about that, Mom,” said Kang Eun-Yeong with a refreshing smirk. “Even if I lose everything somehow, orabi will still be here. And he isn't the type to become a loser.”

Baek Hyeon-Jeong cocked an eyebrow. “Aren't you trusting your oppa a little too much?”

"Nah. It's you who doesn't seem to trust oppa all that much."

“Without Chairman Hwang's help, who knows how your brother would've turned out?”

“Nah, you are wrong about this one, Mom.”

Kang Eun-Yeong honestly thought her mother was way too worried about Kang Jin-Ho. Sure, all parents were supposedly like that, but... When their children become successful in life, most parents would disregard or forget about various factors that got them there and stubbornly believe that the greatness of their children was solely responsible for this result. But, for some odd reason, Baek Hyeon-Jeong seemed to evaluate her son more objectively than everyone else.

“I still think you're too much of a worrywart, Mom.”

“You think so? You think I'm... worried about nothing?”

“Yeah, Mom,” Kang Eun-Yeong unhesitantly replied. “I can understand why you're worried about me, but my oppa? I honestly don't get it. Orabi might be living a high life thanks to Chairman Hwang, but I know he can still do that without any help from anyone. Remember how he studied in his senior year at high school and got a free pass ticket to university, Mom?”

"Even so..."

"If he's only good at studying, I would be worried, too. But let's be real, Mom. He can basically do anything. If he's desperate, he can even debut as an actor right now and still hoover up money like crazy, you know? Hmm, maybe not in overseas territories since it's not easy to go abroad? Even then, he'll still be super-rich working in Korea only, Mom."

“That's because of my genes, Eun-Yeong.”

“Looking good is also a talent, you know,” Kang Eun-Yeong spoke as if she was making a grand statement. “I get that you're worried about how shockingly successful your son is, but my orabi ain't the type of man to get intoxicated by his lifestyle, Mom. You know just as I do how strict he is.”

“W-well, that is true...”

Making a facial expression that conveyed both pride and worry simultaneously was no easy feat, but Baek Hyeong-Jeong was currently pulling that off.

Kang Eun-Yeong sighed inwardly. 'Seriously, she can be so beyond help sometimes...'

If one looked at this situation from a different angle, Baek Hyeon-Jeong's demands could be interpreted as harsh and unreasonable.

“Mom, don't worry so much. People like my oppa don't usually get into trouble that easily.”

"I'm telling you, don't underestimate the scariness of this world, Eun-Yeong."

"If he gets into a car accident, he'll just escape through the windows, you know! Unless some crazy bastard chucks a grenade inside the car, he'll be fine. So don't worry, Mom."

“Eun-Yeong! Stop jinxing things!”

"Eiii... No one's jinxing anything, mom." Kang Eun-Yeong waved her hand dismissively again.

***

Bang Jin-Hun let go of the steering wheel and ducked below as a stream of curses leaped out of his mouth. “Crazy sons of b*tches?!”

Not holding the steering wheel while traveling at a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour was pretty much insane, but now wasn't the time to care about that. If the SUV flipped over at this speed, even martial artists could get killed, but not ducking right now would mean certain death!

“F*ck! Insane motherf*ckers! Uwaaah?! Crazy motherfuc...!”

Bang Jin-Hun knew that the bastards from the Yeongnam Group would not hold back. But to think they would actually start shooting guns in the middle of South Korea! And not just some measly pistols, either... But full-on machine guns, to boot! His mind was thrown into disarray when an event he never thought could happen in this country actually happened right before his eyes.

They weren't in America, so to think the Yeongnam Group would resort to guns! How did this even make sense?! Besides all that, where did they even get those machine guns from?!

"Uwaaaaah!?We're on a public road, you crazy f*cks!"

Even though Bang Jin-Hun didn't want to curse, how could he not curse in this situation? It was already shocking to get attacked by a gang of machine gun-toting goons, but these bastards were even bold enough to fire indiscriminately in the middle of a public road, not some out-of-sight location!

Something like that wouldn't normally be possible unless they lost several screws in their heads! The internet would explode if a black box of a passing car managed to capture this chaos, after all!

'N-no, that's not something I should be worried about, now is it!'

Bullets were raining down on him right now, so why should he be worried about online articles appearing tomorrow?!

Clang! Bang! Claaang!

Metallic noises akin to beans boiling in a pot rang out from the thick doors of Bang Jin-Hun's SUV. Fortunately, it seemed the bullets couldn't penetrate past the door skin.

“Hell yeah! I'm telling you, military equipment for the win!”

Suddenly, Bang Jin-Hun was glad about spending an arm and a leg to buy this vehicle. He was quite pleased about not getting hit by bullets and turning into Swiss cheese, even if the danger of the SUV wandering off the road and falling off a cliff or rolling onto its roof still remained.

'Would I be able to withstand it, though?'

Any and all martial artists would've wondered about it at least once in their lives. Could a bullet without any internal energy penetrate a martial artist's body enhanced by qi? Some said they got hit before and managed to endure it, while some said human bodies were simply too inadequate to withstand the kinetic force behind a firearm.

Whatever it was, Bang Jin-Hun had no desire whatsoever to end that long-running debate through his sacrifice today.

'Those idiots...!'

What was there to debate anyway? If one's cultivation was high enough until their internal energy reserve had gotten ridiculously strong, they could—probably—bounce bullets off with their bare skin. If the cultivation were poor, one would end up as a corpse instead! It was as simple as that!

That didn't mean a martial artist would dare to shoot themselves while proclaiming 'My strength is more than enough!'

Only someone genuinely mad would try that...

Bang Jin-Hun couldn't regain his wits as the barrage of bullets continued to fly above his head. Anyone living in the modern world should be more or less familiar with the group of weapons called 'firearms'. Even then, how many people in Korea still alive today could say they have experienced a hail of bullets before? Indeed, only the generation that participated in wars or the soldiers serving in actual war zones would be able to claim that.

All the knowledge on firearms Bang Jin-Hun gleaned from the popular media and various articles over the years morphed into 'fear' and started paralyzing his thought process. And just like a terrified child searching for his parent, Bang Jin-Hun instinctively turned his head to look for Kang Jin-Ho.

'...Uh?'

When he looked, Bang Jin-Hun discovered Kang Jin-Ho staring right back at him. It seemed Kang Jin-Ho also had no thoughts of getting hit by flying bullets as he had folded himself into the footwell.

The only difference between him and Bang Jin-Hun in this situation, though... was his expression. It wasn't distorted like Bang Jin-Hun's.

Kang Jin-Ho was expressionless, only for the corners of his lips to curl up after looking into Bang Jin-Hun's eyes. It was as if he was mocking Bang Jin-Hun.

‘You are actually raising such a hullabaloo after getting scared by a measly little situation like this? Mm?’

That was the impression Bang Jin-Hun got at Kang Jin-Ho's smirk. Even if that was probably not what Kang Jin-Ho wanted to say, Bang Jin-Hun still felt his rage swell up and gritted his teeth.

Bang Jin-Hun was now the Assembly Master of the Korean Martial Assembly. To think someone like that was screaming like a little girl just because he was getting shot at!

'Son of a b*tch...! What an inhuman bastard...!'

Looking at the calm Kang Jin-Ho made Bang Jin-Hun feel like a coward. The light in Bang Jin-Hun's eyes instantly grew cold as defiance announced itself loudly in his head.

Now wasn't the time to scream in terror but to find a suitable response!

'Bloody hell, haven't they run out of bullets yet?!'

They should have emptied their magazines a long time ago, but the intensity of the shooting hadn't let up yet. Still, knowing he would not get hit as long as he kept his head down gave Bang Jin-Hum some mental leeway, and the gears in his head started grinding again.

'For now, the doors can withstand the bullets.' The first reveal of this chapter happened through N//0/vel-Biiin.

He didn't know if his SUV was designed to be this tough from the get-go or if the person who originally ordered the vehicle had it reinforced after predicting that a situation like this would happen. Either way, one thing was for sure—the Yeongnam Group's firepower wasn't enough to penetrate the doors.

'If we take the doors off and use them as body bunkers, we might be able to jump into the cars next to us!'

In the worst-case scenario, he might miss the target and land on the road's surface at the speed of a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour, but that would still be preferable to receiving a shower of bullets. Bang Jin-Hun was confident of keeping his life even if he landed on the ground at the current speed, but he didn't know if he could survive getting hit by a bullet.

“Mister Jin-Ho!”

“Yes?”

"Staying like this will get us nowhere! Let's rip the doors out and use them as shields while jumping into the cars next to us!"

As Bang Jin-Hun was shouting that, he realized how insane his idea sounded, even to his own ears. However, it still felt like the most realistic solution to him in the current situation.

Kang Jin-Ho looked at Bang Jin-Hun weirdly. “Mm? Can't you just hit the brake?”

“...Eh?” Bang Jin-Hun grew a little dazed just then.

Normally, he would have avoided doing that since he didn't want to collide with the car behind him, but now... What was stopping him from doing just that?

Colliding with a car behind him was not even a problem anymore. Surviving should come first, didn't it?

“In that case, I'll just...!”

But before Bang Jin-Hun could shout at Kang Jin-Ho to hold on and slam on the brake, his mouth clamped shut automatically. His eyes widened as his vision discovered something.

It was small and dark in color. Despite the darkness of the night, Bang Jin-Hun could see it clearly. A small and round metallic object was flying across the sky to slip inside the broken window of Bang Jin-Hun's SUV.

The SUV was still traveling at a hundred and fifty kilometers per hour. Meanwhile, bullets still bombarded it.

This whole situation was desperately urgent, yet ironically enough, Bang Jin-Hun saw everything in slow motion. A weapon just as famous as guns to people consuming popular media was flying in toward where he was right now.

It was a hand grenade.

“Aaaaaahk?!”

Before Bang Jin-Hun could react, the grenade detonated first.

KA-BOOM!

1. 'Body bunkers' are bulletproof shields used by riot police.