Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Sweeping the Organization (3)
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The men, flustered by my laughter, soon wore furious expressions as they tried to threaten me by pulling out their weapons or items.
Sharp blades.
I moved the moment I saw them.
"Hey, is this situation funny?... Huh?"
"...My item..."
Clang!
But the moment they pulled something out from their bosoms, my fist had already smashed all their items to pieces.
It didn't take long for them to realize that even resistance was pointless.
After driving for a while like that,
the car slowly came to a stop in front of a rundown abandoned factory in a sparsely populated industrial complex.
As I slowly got out of the vehicle, the four men who had been threatening me just moments ago in the car hurriedly followed suit.
And as if nothing had happened, they bowed 90 degrees toward me and greeted me politely.
"Take care going in, Big Brother!"
"Big Brother, you..."
"...Have a good day, sir!"
Yeah, "sir" was the most comfortable to hear.
The moment I smashed their pathetic weapons and crude items inside the car, our relationship had flipped in an instant.
I received their fawning send-off, but to remember for last, I asked for the factory's password.
The man whose clothes I'd even taken from him replied in a trembling voice.
"The number?"
"...It's 7123!"
The man, deprived of his outfit, was wearing nothing but a white tank top.
Wearing the man's clothes and mask, I entered the password into the old door lock at the factory entrance. With a dull thud, the door opened. I had finally infiltrated their hideout.
The inside of the abandoned factory was far larger than I'd expected.
Dozens of computers lined a vast space, and many people sat in front of them, engrossed in something.
But strangely, every single one of them had a dark, lifeless expression.
As if they were people forcibly held here and made to work.
As I stepped inside, a few spotted me and jumped up in surprise, standing and bowing their heads in greeting.
They must have mistaken me for someone else because of the clothes and mask I was wearing.
Fortunately, the infiltration was a success. I accepted their greetings as naturally as possible and began thoroughly scanning the interior of the suspicious abandoned factory.
As I surveyed the eerily lifeless factory interior,
a man approached me with an urgent expression, as if he'd been waiting.
"Brother Chang-sik! You're finally here!"
Chang-sik. Must be the original owner of these clothes and mask I'd taken.
I nodded as naturally as I could. The man then asked, puzzled,
"Brother, are you unwell? Why aren't you saying anything?"
Caught off guard for a moment, I quickly pointed to my throat and made a small "Ahh..." sound like a hoarse rasp.
Meaning my throat hurt and I couldn't speak.
Fortunately, my clumsy acting worked; the man easily accepted it with, "Oh, your voice is out, huh," and urged me along, saying there was urgent business and we had to hurry.
"It's chaos right now. Brother, you need to come quick!"
He led the way deeper into the factory.
As I followed, I checked the security around us. It was impossible to tell if this place had thorough security or if it was a joke.
There were plenty of heavy iron doors and modern locks installed here and there, but most doors were wide open, and the few that were locked all used the same password I'd entered to get in: '7123.'
This wasn't even security-level.
I'd planned assuming tight security, but it felt completely unmanaged.
"...Hmm."
And when we finally reached the innermost area, I was a bit surprised inside but tried to keep a calm facade.
Because in the deepest part of the rundown, rusted abandoned factory stood the utterly out-of-place entrance to a massive supermarket.
In front of it, several rough-looking men gathered, murmuring with troubled expressions.
The man guiding me went to the one with a huge scar on his face and reported,
"Brother, I brought Brother Chang-sik!"
The scarred man turned to me and said urgently,
"Chang-sik, good you came! Big trouble. We gotta redraw the map again. The store's layout has completely changed again!"
From his words, I vaguely guessed the nature of that supermarket.
That was the supply source where they got all those numerous items.
A supermarket whose internal structure changed on its own after a set time, one that made people lose their way and isolated those who entered. It screamed classic monster phenomenon just from the description.
I listened to their conversation while watching the eerie supermarket entrance from afar.
"...Why isn't this guy answering?"
"Oh, Brother Chang-sik's throat isn't doing well right now."
"Oh?"
Roughly, the big-scar guy seemed to be the highest rank, and next was me—or rather, the guy called Chang-sik—as the second.
The original Chang-sik must have been the one who mapped the monster supermarket's structure and had items good for dodging monsters.
So now that the layout had changed, they wanted me to take the lead and scout it again.
If I played it right, I could turn this situation completely to my advantage.
"Let's go quick, Chang-sik."
"Brother! We leave it to you!"
I nodded reluctantly and entered the supermarket entrance with a few of the men.
"Damn, already compromised! We gotta crouch, Brother!"
The moment we passed the entrance, the men accompanying me whispered and hunched over as they quickly slipped past the counter.
Where their gazes were directed stood employees in neat uniforms.
Their faces were anything but normal.
All of them had their mouths stretched open in overly wide grins, red gums fully exposed from smiling so hugely.
And because of that unnatural smile, their eye areas twitched like they were spasming, evoking only grotesqueness and eeriness instead of friendliness.
"..."
Yeah, this was a monster.
Seeing things like that made ordinary humans seem utterly unthreatening.
The supermarket interior was like a massive warehouse store, say Costco.
High shelves were stocked with various items displayed like merchandise. The sight reminded me of Dongto's item warehouse.
The way they displayed items and the scale felt somehow similar.
"Brother Chang-sik! What are you spacing out for? We gotta find the way quick!"
At the men's urging, I snapped to and took the lead.
Remembering or navigating the path was no trouble at all. After all, I had a map that showed this space's structure at a glance.
I calmly led them onward.
Deliberately using my hoarse voice, I casually broached the subject to the guys.
"...Heard rumors lately that besides Jinmyeong Group, others are watching us too... You good?"
At my words, the men scoffed. One with what looked like a pistol item holstered at his waist said confidently,
"Brother, did your throat shrink your balls too? With all these items in our hands, who do we have to fear?"
He added,
"We've already planted spies inside Jinmyeong Group, so we know all their moves like the back of our hand. The cops? Total non-threat. And the exploration teams handling monster phenomena? Same deal. Far from threats, they're just grateful donors handing us items."
Saying that, the man twirled his pistol item showily.
"That thing won't break like last time?"
When I asked again in my raspy voice, he looked at me like I was weird.
"Brother, you forgot that too? As you know, the three-star premium stuff we snag from this store has no side effects or malfunctions. Basic, right?"
Meanwhile, he grumbled that the only downside was having to sneak around the employees because it was too pricey to buy outright, so they stole it.
Everyone except the big-scar guy seemed to have stolen three-star items.
I hid that I hadn't known and deflected with, "I know, just checking." The man got even more excited and blabbed on.
"I didn't even aim, but it nailed the head perfectly, right?"
The other men, as if waiting, started boastfully recounting like war stories how they'd killed Jinmyeong Group employees or investigating cops, and how badly they'd injured them.
Listening to their tales, even the shred of sympathy or curiosity I'd had for them vanished completely.
Typical villains.
Yeah, I'd figured it was a place like this.
"...This way."
So, I decided to execute my original plan.
On the map visible only to me, I started leading them one by one—pretending to be the excellent guide Chang-sik—toward the vivid red dots marking the monsters' positions.