Touching the ground’s surface would result in the energy-sucking characteristic. Clothing and shoes did not stop the effect and hiding by the rocks or ruins didn’t work either.

Jung Ilgyu found a way to work around it. With some tricks, he was able to bury a giant ‘steel’ structure beneath the ground somewhere.

“And even if you walk on the land, there’s a simple way to avoid your energy from being sucked out.”

“…?”

The method, as she mentioned, was simple. It was too simple to the point where Dohyuk’s response was-

“Hah.”

But the information was enough. Dohyuk took a step and Yuri spoke from behind.

“You didn’t ask.”

“What?”

“Shouldn’t you be worried?”

“Worried about you?”

“Of course, no. I know my place,” Yuri smiled. “It’s the opposite. Aren’t you worried that I will betray you?”

Yuri held up her whip. Just like how she was unharmed, her equipment was intact. Yuri was genuinely surprised when she received it from Dohyuk. Unlike Giwon, Yuri had not heard the reason for such mercy from Dohyuk yet.

“What makes you so generous?”

“I’m generous?”

Dohyuk turned to Yuri’s intrigued, curious face. Her eyes bright like a child’s, as if she had just witnessed something unbelievable.

“I gave that to you because you are strong enough to be considered firepower. I’m not being generous.”

“But you didn’t do that to the girl.”

Heeyun.

“I mean I’m not someone who can see through everything, but even I can see that the girl is useless. I mean, she wasn’t even pretty either. And if you were some other strong man, that girl would’ve been rolling on the ground, beaten down to be taught a lesson the moment she talked back to you.”

“…You don’t think that can be you?”

“I do.”

In the next moment, Yuri sped up to walk past Dohyuk before she turned back and walked backwards as she watched him.

“I always have that in mind. If you make me follow your orders or beat me down, crush me, or whip me right at this moment, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. I’m just surprised that you aren’t doing that at all. It’s really fascinating to me.”

Yuri knew what a man, no, a strong human would do to a weakling. Since she had lived a long time on the side of the weak, she hands-on experience. Even the Tyrant wasn’t much different – he was just a bit stronger and a bit more violent than others.

Dohyuk, however, was different. This difference was intriguing to her. That’s why she wanted to know more, and thus she spoke and made a move that would tempt or taunt a man. Even if it resulted in deadly violence, she still wanted to know.

“…Ugh.”

She gasped for a second. It wasn’t because of Dohyuk.

They had arrived.

Vampiric Region.

It was the region where your power would be drawn away just by walking.

Dohyuk experienced what it was like for the first time.

“…”

It wasn’t a pleasant feeling to say the least. It felt like he was being sucked out with countless tubes stuck on his body.

“There are a lot of people here,” Yuri said. She knew that the region’s sucking energy would be weakened as more people walked into it. By the way things were, it seemed that the Tyrant was probably packing things up to get ready to leave.

“Remember what I said? How to negate the damage?”

“…”

It was simple.

The only thing that could capture energy wasn’t the ground itself.

“If a living thing hurts another living thing-”

Part of the damage would transfer over to the attacker in the form of energy. So, if it was possible to attack others, one could live in this region without taking any damage at all.

“We can ambush one by one slowly…”

“No, we’ll go.” Dohyuk spat and began to move. Yuri was shocked.

“Huh?”

“Now.”

Without hesitation, Dohyuk began running at full speed toward the inner region.

“W-wait!”

She would not have been so shocked if Dohyuk punched her in the face right now. Yet Dohyuk did not care if Yuri followed him or not. He just ran. Even after listening to her explanation, Dohyuk just ran straight through the ruins of the old city as if he did not care at all.

He felt that there were others excluding Yuri who were eyeing him. They weren’t attacking yet only because Dohyuk was faster than them and they were surprised by the sudden visitor. He ran through the alleyway and climbed over a fence. Then, he arrived at a wide and empty lot.

It was a bit far from the ‘accurate’ location Giwon had informed him of, but Dohyuk did not hesitate and punched the ground.

“W-what are you…”

Yuri, who barely caught up to him, and the enemies who came later than Yuri, couldn’t understand Dohyuk’s actions. He was just punching the ground with all of his might. Of course, he was unleashing very powerful strikes. Shortly after the ground was dug up to Dohyuk’s height.

“Wait- are you?”

The moment Yuri realized what he was doing, her face turned pale. Dohyuk’s fist hit something hard, resulting in a bloody fist. Underneath his foot was a steel surface. It was the underground labyrinth, the surface of the secret space where Ilgyu’s treasures were hidden.

“Crazy fool.”

With the voice, guards of the region began appearing as they circled Dohyuk.

“Are you trying to punch a hole into it?”

“You’re an idiot.”

Yuri thought so as well. Dohyuk did manage to find the underground labyrinth, but so what? There was nothing that could be done. The steel surface was bit crumpled, but it was far from being punched through. Now, there were men circling them and they would block Dohyuk from working on it.

“Whew.”

Dohyuk let out a sigh and stood up. Even with his bloody, crushed fist, he didn’t even frown.

“I found the shortcut thanks to you.”

“…?!”

Dohyuk spoke to Yuri and the other guards jumped toward them. They were very fast, but the situation was in control. It was because-

He reached down to place his hand on the surface.

Oh, and he needed to say one phrase to finish it.

“Digest.”

With the word, a bright light flashed.

And there was an earthquake, big enough to shake the entire region.