Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Chapter 16. Cheese in the Trap

“Faster. At that speed, you couldn't even catch a mosquito.”

Only sharp bursts of displaced air and heavy impacts cut through the cold air of the empty abandoned factory.

Five or six exorcists already lay groaning across the floor.

At the center, Kang Do-jun casually deflected the barrage of attacks with a single mop handle wielded like a skewer.

“Damn it, what the hell are those steps?!”

Cheshire Cat gritted his teeth and thrust his dagger.

Just as he became certain he'd tracked the afterimage and aimed perfectly at a vital point, his vision flipped.

Kang Do-jun's body shimmered like a mirage and vanished, and a heavy impact struck his side.

Do-jun rubbed his chin, the corner of his mouth twitching upward.

‘This new footwork isn't bad at all.’

Boom! Boom!

A movement technique recreated in Do-jun's own style by combining Shortening Distance with Navajo wind sorcery.

The precise travel distance of traditional Shortening Distance merged with the explosive force unique to wind sorcery, creating movement far more irregular than his previous footwork.

What should he call it...

‘Divine Wind Shadow Step.’

Using this new technique, Do-jun beat the Alice exorcists... no, trained them.

Thud! Thump! BAM!

“G-Guhhh!”

Whenever they seemed to close the distance, a sudden firestorm erupted.

Vines rose from the floor to seize their feet, and shockwaves blasted them backward.

Even in ten-on-one fights, they couldn't touch so much as a speck of dust on him.

They were all veterans who had defeated countless evil spirits in the underworld... yet their pride wasn't even wounded anymore.

Facing that Asian exorcist felt less like fighting someone strong and more like trying to overcome an enormous wall.

‘Impossible. I definitely saw an opening, so why am I rolling on the floor?’

Queen of Hearts also bit her lip while gasping for breath. The sacred spell she'd just cast dissolved like mist the moment it touched Kang Do-jun's fingertips.

He wasn't simply overpowering it with force, but twisting the flow of spiritual power itself and nullifying it.

“What country's sorcery is that? I've never even heard of anything like it.”

“Knowing won't change the result. Just keep trying.”

Instead of answering, Kang Do-jun rolled his neck and settled back into position.

“He's coming again! Four of us together this time!”

“Okay!”

The hellish training continued.

It looked like one-sided violence, but even beneath the nonstop beating, the exorcists' movements gradually became more precise.

Their bodies screamed in pain, yet Kang Do-jun's feedback never stopped.

“Good, that combination was decent. Cheshire, don't cut left—drive straight in!”

“Damn it! Easy for you to say!”

Then a voice sounded inside Do-jun's mind.

《I don't understand why you waste time on these incompetents. Wouldn't it be better to fight alone? Borrow my power and it would be more than enough.》

‘Maybe, but if I borrow too much power... it'll probably take longer for my old friend inside me to wake up.’

《Hmm. So that's your scheme. Bold.》

‘And they're not weak. They're actually pretty useful.’

How long had he been speaking with Wakan Tanka?

Almost as though proving his words, the Alice members suddenly pressured Do-jun together as if sharing a single body.

Their spells and weapons came in layered combinations, eliminating blind spots while directing killing intent toward Do-jun.

Boom! BOOM!

He deflected each attack in short, efficient motions.

Then.

Slash!

In one instant, a chain flew from outside his field of vision and grazed his collar.

“Damn it! I thought I finally hit you clean!”

Mad Hatter shouted in frustration.

Do-jun grinned.

‘See? Not bad, right?’

《...Certainly better than at the beginning.》

He'd only put them through this for a few days, yet their movements had visibly improved.

At this point, he thought everyone here could at least compete with ordinary lower-ranking Cheongwa exorcists.

Of course, defeating the vampires coming for them with this alone was impossible... But they had improved enough not to drag him down.

“Again!”

“Hyaaaaa!”

Everyone, seemingly tireless, charged Do-jun at once again.

“Stop!”

Clap!

He clapped his hands, releasing a shockwave that hurled them all away.

“Ghhhh... Seriously, what the hell is that ridiculous power?”

“Daaaamn it.”

While everyone looked frustrated.

“That's enough training for today.”

“It's over...? We didn't land even one proper blow.”

When their leader, Clock Rabbit, asked, Do-jun shrugged.

“The vampires are coming tomorrow. Better preserve some condition before then, right?”

“How... do you know that?”

Do-jun plucked one strand of hair and blew on it.

The hair emitted blue light and dissolved into the air.

“Call it... a kind of precognition.”

“...”

What the hell is this guy?

Everyone stared at him as though looking at a ghost.

Do-jun pulled a brush from his clothes and bit his fingertip until blood welled up.

“All right, enough getting worked up. Bring me your weapons and the combat gear you'll be wearing tomorrow.”

“What are you planning?”

“Eastern buffs.”

Everyone cautiously brought over their combat gear, and Do-jun wrote Chinese-character talismans onto yellow paper.

‘Cheshire lacks destructive power... so Breaking Wall, Flying Force. For Queen of Hearts, Clear Mirror, Still Water.’

For Cheshire Cat, who had speed but lacked power, he added weight to his strikes.

For Queen of Hearts, whose mentality was weak, he prepared a talisman that improved concentration...

Having fought alongside Alice's members for the past two days, he attached spells to their weapons and armored vests specifically to compensate for each person's weaknesses.

And each time...

‘There's some strange energy flowing through me.’

‘For some reason, I feel calmer...’

Everyone immediately noticed the effects to some degree.

“I'm doing this one for free, so try them. If you like them, next time you can pay me.”

“Hah! You're a ruthless bastard.”

Mad Hatter let out a hollow laugh while inspecting his equipment.

Meanwhile, Kang Do-jun walked toward a corner and took out the Annabelle doll he'd kept tucked away.

The item the hound had brought with him.

The resentment sealed inside the doll was far weaker than before, but powerful energy was still radiating from within.

Wakan Tanka asked.

《Isn't that the lesser spirit you tore apart before?》

‘Yeah. You remember.’

《Why are you still carrying this thing? It reeks terribly. Why haven't you burned it already?》

‘I think... I can use this as the ‘kick’ for the upcoming battle.’

《What are you talking about? What use is a toy I can't even eat?》

‘You don't need to know. I've got a plan.’

《Getting arrogant again...》

As the two bickered, Michael approached and summarized the situation.

“The equipment with your talismans has all been checked. Now... we just wait for them to arrive?”

“Yeah. Though there's one more thing we need to prepare.”

“What?”

“Open the club tomorrow. I want it packed with customers when we fight.”

“What are you talking about?!”

Clock Rabbit—Michael—shouted in shock.

The other members' eyes widened too.

“If civilians are present, things will get out of hand, and it'll restrict us in battle! What if the vampires take hostages?”

“Calm down. I've got a plan. Hear it first, then decide.”

With a sharp smile, Do-jun carefully explained his idea to the Alice members.

Their mouths gradually fell open.

“...If we do it this way, we can hit them as spectacularly as possible. What do you think?”

Everyone asked blankly.

“That's insane... Is something like that even possible?”

“If it works, the effect would be enormous...”

Do-jun dusted himself off and stood.

“Then let's do it. Vampire hunting.”

His voice was full of confidence.

***

The night streets of Brooklyn.

The elite unit ‘Shadow Fang,’ led by Smithers in a fur coat, cut through the darkness like shadows.

“What the fuck are you staring at?”

“S-Sorry!”

The killing intent radiating from dozens of high-ranking vampires froze the very atmosphere of Brooklyn.

Even drug dealers and gangsters who normally ruled the streets instinctively lowered their heads and cleared the way.

‘H-Hey, isn't that... Smithers?’

“Looks like him.”

Some even recognized the ruler of Brooklyn's night.

That was how overwhelming Smithers and his gang were in this city.

“This is it.”

At last, they reached the front entrance of Club ‘Alice.’

Strangely, the entrance was wide open.

Powerful beats and people's cheers spilled from inside.

Smithers frowned.

“Boss... looks like they're open for business.”

“Arrogant bastards. Idiotic pieces of shit.”

Since they had killed his hound, he'd expected them to either flee or barricade themselves inside like a fortress, yet instead the place was lit up like broad daylight and full of customers.

That meant one of two things.

Either they didn't understand the situation.

Or they were confident.

“Please wait. If you'd like to enter, there's an admission fee—Guhk!”

Smithers flicked a finger and sent the guards flying into trash bins before walking straight inside.

Boom-boom! Boom-boom!

A glittering mirror ball spun overhead, and hundreds of humans danced together, drenched in sweat.

A true den of pleasure.

Smithers's nose twitched.

‘There's... no smell.’

In a place packed with hundreds of people, there should have been the distinctive metallic scent of human bodies and hot blood.

Instead, what reached his nose was the stench of ancient dust and something strangely sweet yet rotten.

Then a familiar silhouette appeared at the railing of the VIP room above the stage.

His hat was pulled too low to reveal his face, but it was the Asian man looking down while exhaling vapor from a vape.

“You're later than I expected.”

Kang Do-jun's voice pierced cleanly through the music and reached Smithers's ears.

Smithers bared his teeth and roared.

“So it was you... Asian.”

The Asian who destroyed the factory at the harbor and killed the hound.

Now that he knew the bastard operated around this club, there was no reason to restrain himself.

And the fact that the place was packed with civilians only made the situation more favorable for the vampires.

Smithers's eyes turned red.

“Handle it.”

“Yes.”

The members of Shadow Fang leapt onto the stage like starving beasts.

Every one of them was at least Tier 4... powerful vampires.

They spread out in perfect coordination.

“Hyaaah!”

“Aaaaagh!”

A vampire's fangs sank mercilessly into the neck of a woman dancing near the entrance.

Crunch!

Blood should have sprayed everywhere.

But what burst out wasn't red blood.

“...!”

What flooded the vampire's mouth was coarse sawdust, rotten stuffing, and black smoke filled with terrible resentment.

The woman whose throat had been torn open didn't even scream in pain.

Instead, her neck twisted backward a full one hundred eighty degrees, and she stared at the vampire with a grotesque smile.

《Kyahahaha! Want to... play with me?》

What came from the woman's mouth wasn't a human voice.

It was a horrifying laugh like thousands of rats scratching at once.

“W-What the hell is this?!”

The stunned vampire tried to pull away, but the woman's hands had already hardened like a doll's and locked around his arm.

And that wasn't all.

The hundreds of ‘customers’ who had been dancing suddenly stopped all at once.

They turned their heads with creaking motions like wind-up dolls and stared at the vampires.

Do-jun smiled.

“The guests are having fun dancing... it'd be rude to interrupt them. I heard you run a club too. Where are your manners?”

Kang Do-jun lightly snapped his fingers.

The guests' skin melted like dough, revealing their true grotesque forms beneath.

They were not human.

They were spirit-medium dolls created by filling them with the resentment of Annabelle and her friends.

The Catastrophe-Class Exorcist Is Too Strong in America

Author

: Gisigami

Production Date

: September 15, 2026

Publisher

: ACES Media Co., Ltd.

Editor

: ACES Media Editorial Team

Address

: 12F, Urban Bench Building, 325 Teheran-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

Email

: acesmedia9@gmail.com

※ This work was published by ACES Media Co., Ltd. under contract with the copyright holder,

and its contents may not be used in any form or by any means without permission from the company and the author.

This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law, and unauthorized reproduction or redistribution may result in legal liability.

UCI

: G720:N+A129-20260914068