Man From Another Wold

CHAPTER 7: RAGE BEHIND THE SHADOWS

In a dimly lit room at the corner of the city, Candra sat in a chair with a grim expression. His sharp eyes stared at the kneeling, battered man before him. The man was trembling in fear, blood still dripping from the corner of his mouth from the beating he had taken from Hansen.

Candra exhaled deeply, trying to calm his rage. He had spent a lot of money hiring this man, yet the results were embarrassing.

“I paid you handsomely, and you return like this?” Candra's voice was cold, laced with a threatening tone.

The man bowed his head, his voice trembling as he spoke. “I’m sorry, sir! We didn’t expect him to be that strong. We thought he was just an ordinary young man, but he… he’s like a monster!”

“Monster?” Candra laughed cynically, but there was no humor in his voice. “Don’t joke. I know his background. He’s nothing more than a beggar who just appeared in this city!”

“But… but sir, he has strange powers! We couldn’t even touch him!”

Candra narrowed his eyes. If his men were saying this, then there was something more to Hansen than he had anticipated. Hansen wasn’t just someone with a little martial arts skill—there was something else, something that made him different.

“Did he mention my name?” Candra asked, his eyes calculating.

“No, sir… He just defeated us without saying much. It was as though we weren’t even worthy opponents…”

Candra clenched the wine glass in his hand and threw it hard at the wall. The glass shattered into pieces, making the room feel even more oppressive.

“Interesting… So not only did he defeat you, but he didn’t show any fear either,” he murmured.

He then leaned back in his chair, thinking for a moment before a small smile crept across his face.

“It seems that kid has some martial arts skills. This is quite unexpected. Based on his build, there’s no way he could defeat five people at once. Now I’m even more curious.”

“Hansen, because you dared to interfere with my woman, don’t blame me for destroying your life. Before it was just a warning, but now, we’re going to war!”

---

The quiet night embraced Hansen's apartment. On the balcony, the dim light from the city illuminated his figure as he focused on a piece of paper with an amulet in front of him. The night breeze gently swayed his slightly messy hair.

“If there’s no Spiritual Energy, then I’ll have to use amulets to create energy as a substitute,” he murmured, tracing ancient symbols with his fingers.

His hands moved with precision, drawing intricate patterns on the paper. Every line he drew seemed to contain its own power, faintly glowing before slowly fading away. This technique was nothing new to him. In his previous life, he had mastered various ways to manipulate energy, and now, he just needed to adapt to the conditions of this world.

However, something felt off.

“There’s a disturbance…” Hansen paused for a moment, his eyes narrowing. He sensed a strange aura in the air, faint but unmistakable. Someone was watching him.

With a smooth motion, he tore off a piece of the amulet paper and blew on it softly. Instantly, the amulet turned to ash, flying into the air, vanishing in the darkness of the night.

From the far corner of the building across the street, a man dressed in black, who had been lurking in the shadows, suddenly felt his chest tighten. His eyes widened as if he had just been sucked into an invisible whirlpool of energy. Within seconds, he staggered back, gasping for breath.

“What happened to me?!”

Without a second thought, the man immediately jumped from his position and disappeared into the darkness, leaving his spot behind.

Hansen gave a small grin.

“Looks like I’m starting to draw attention…” he said quietly, then returned inside the apartment, leaving the balcony, which now felt colder than before.

Meanwhile, the man, who had just descended from the apartment building across, tumbled down. He lost consciousness and fell from a great height.

Blood splattered, and the screams of pedestrians echoed below the building.

Back inside Hansen's apartment, he sat in a lotus position with perfect posture, the amulets around him glowing as they absorbed energy from the outside and fed it into his body.

Spiritual energy began to swirl around Hansen, forming a gentle vortex that pulsed in the air. The amulets he had prepared glowed faintly, absorbing power from the surrounding environment and slowly channeling that energy into his body.

Although this world lacked pure energy like he had known, Hansen didn’t lack ways to deal with it. He had lived through various worlds, facing limitations far worse than this.

Suddenly, his body felt an odd warmth. The spiritual energy he absorbed began to stimulate the core of his strength, awakening something that had long been dormant. Hansen furrowed his brow—this was different from what he expected.

“What is this…?” he thought to himself.

Instead of just restoring part of his strength, the energy seemed to awaken something deeper. There was a faint resonance, like fragments of memories from past lives locked deep in his mind.

Suddenly, the symbols on his amulets vibrated violently. The light that was once steady turned into wild flashes, spinning faster and faster until—

BOOM!

A small explosion of energy shook the room, causing a few items around him to shift. Hansen opened his eyes, his gaze sharp, gleaming with light.

“I can feel… something different.”

He clenched his fists. A new power, although not fully awakened, began to flow within him.

However, at the same time, a bad premonition surged in his mind. It was as if something was drawing near.

Hansen stood and walked toward the window, looking out onto the street below. In the distance, police sirens wailed loudly, catching his attention.

“It seems someone died tonight…” he murmured.

His eyes narrowed as he realized something. If the spy from earlier had indeed fallen and died, it was very likely this incident would draw even more attention to him.

With a deep breath, Hansen returned to the center of the room and began drawing a new pattern on a fresh piece of amulet paper. If someone was targeting him, they wouldn’t be getting an easy prey.