Stop Death
KMS reporter Jang Seon-woong had spent the night on the sofa, sleep glued shut in his eyes.
Around four in the morning.
The call came in.
The caller was a detective he knew well.
"There are victims?"
After a brief exchange, he threw on his clothes and scrambled to get ready to head out.
Kim Hansu, his junior, was already awake.
"You stay here and get ready to run the breaking story. Turn on the live broadcast."
"Yes, sir. Haaam."
Leaving behind a yawning Kim Hansu, Jang Seon-woong grabbed his equipment and raced to the scene.
If eight ordinary civilians really did die... and stopdeath_1234 is without a doubt the killer... then this was the scoop of the century.
Not only the ratings — through his line of contact with the killer, he could make the entire nation watch KMS.
Come on. Be true.
A promotion, money, fame, results — everything was riding on this.
Lee Hocheon rose early in the morning, turned on the news, and ate breakfast.
Inconvenient, not being able to confirm the deaths myself.
He had no choice but to rely entirely on the media.
All of them, dead.
No sign of my tip?
He switched to another channel.
He had sent it to every major news outlet, not just KMS.
The screen cut to a live feed from the KMS reporter.
The nameplate read: Jang Seon-woong.
"Last night, we received a tip from a man claiming to be the killer. He said that eight ordinary civilians would die today, and delivered the following message."
The reporter glanced down at his paper once, then spoke calmly.
"He wants no more deaths caused by drunk driving."
Drawing a breath, he added his own commentary.
"That is what he said, and it appears to carry two meanings. First, strengthen drunk-driving policy. Second, if you don't, he will continue killing drunk drivers. It is essentially a warning — an indication that his killings have a purpose."
Jang Seon-woong. Lee Hocheon committed the name to memory.
The man had understood exactly what he'd sent.
I can just contact that person from now on.
There was no longer any need to kill first and explain later — a warning would do.
A simple declaration of intent would be effective, and it made for a solid justification too.
The only thing to be careful about was leaving a trail.
To that end, he used a Chinese VPN to change his IP and traveled to a different district before making contact.
Looked into it, and even this isn't foolproof.
If investigators pressured the VPN company for cooperation, his location could be exposed.
China would make that difficult, but international interest was mounting.
I need a way to build a communication network.
No — wait.
Was that really necessary?
He had already made his murderous intent public. Going forward, if a child molester turned up dead, people would read it as a call to strengthen child abuse laws on their own.
Can't be helped, then.
He had tried sending warnings first to reduce the number of deaths a little — but doing so put himself at risk.
Better to end it with this one contact and let his actions speak.
Nine today. A celebrity and civilians together.
He had said he hoped no more drunk drivers would die — but that was merely a wish.
Nothing ever changed with a single sentence.
The fear had to keep building.
"This time he killed civilians. Don't tell me he knows we've had people tailing him?"
Kim Woocheol, head of the Hunter Crime Investigation Division, bit his lip.
Four days now. Twenty-five victims and counting.
The phone calls from political heavyweights and higher-ups simply wouldn't stop.
"I'd say he does. Otherwise, how could he kill only the ones we weren't watching?"
Kang Yeji agreed.
It was exceedingly rare for the Hunter Crime Investigation Division to come up empty like this — the division was staffed with hunters who possessed truly exceptional abilities.
"But how would he even know? Short of being a god, that should be impossible. And the KMS coverage already confirmed he's human."
Seo Gichan pushed up his glasses as he spoke.
"I agree. Even with an S-rank skill, knowing everything would be difficult. Concealment, hiding in shadows, seeing from a kilometer out — and yet he notices a tail on him?"
"Hmm..."
Kang Yeji couldn't argue.
Even S-rank hunters couldn't reliably detect the division's surveillance.
That much had already been verified through numerous tests.
"Did you trace the IP?"
"Yes. It traced back to China. He must have routed it through a VPN."
"Request information from the company."
"Already done."
"The username?"
Kim Woocheol asked about the account ID.
The usernames criminals chose often gave up more clues than expected. Perpetrators of this kind of calculated crime had an unconscious habit of revealing their philosophy, their convictions.
"stopdeath_1234. The media outlets have already taken to calling him sd1234."
"Stop Death?"
"Stopping death, something like that, we think."
"Kills people left and right, and he wants to stop death?"
"Judging by his conduct so far, he presents as a psychopath."
It resembled psychopathic criminality closely.
Such offenders controlled their emotions superbly and felt no guilt.
Moreover, their methods were methodical and meticulous, and they excelled at lying and manipulation.
Across four days of attacks, every one of those traits had radiated from sd1234's crimes.
"Of all the people to awaken, it had to be that bastard."
"We need to prepare for a fifth day of attacks, quickly."
"Give me something. Opinions."
Four days in, and there had been no progress whatsoever.
The fire was now truly at their feet.
Seo Gichan pushed his glasses up again and spoke.
"We should lure him into killing a celebrity with a drunk-driving record."
"How?"
"Look at today's victims. Every one of them was stopped at a police checkpoint last night. Which means he was at a checkpoint."
"Hmm. So we stake out the checkpoints?"
Park Kwangdo asked, shifting his muscular frame on the sofa as if it had grown uncomfortable.
"They died in the early hours, after the checkpoints. Meaning he did nothing during them. Even if we stake the sites out, the odds of spotting him among all those people are low."
Kim Woocheol nodded.
It wasn't as if they could haul in and detain every single person who passed through.
"So what exactly are you proposing?"
"The fact that he killed people caught at checkpoints tells us he was hunting ordinary drunk drivers."
"Go on."
"We eliminate the checkpoints for the time being."
Silence followed Seo Gichan's words.
Eliminate the checkpoints. Such a deceptively simple solution.
"With no checkpoints, he'd have to find the drunk drivers himself."
"Exactly. And even if he finds and kills them, he won't be able to prove his victims were drunk drivers."
"Right. Because they were never stopped at a checkpoint. Hooh."
"So — eliminate the checkpoints, and concentrate him on celebrities with drunk-driving records?"
Park Kwangdo cut in, the plan clicking into place for him.
"That's right. Or alternatively, we could manufacture drunk drivers ourselves."
"That's a fine idea too."
"If we play the media aggressively with a provocative narrative, he'll take the bait."
"That's our Seo Gichan. The ace of the Crime Investigation Division. Good — let's start both, right now."
Marveling at the brilliance of the operation, Kim Woocheol moved to execute both plans at once.
"Wait a moment."
Kang Yeji, who had been listening quietly, interjected.
"What if he's a police officer? Or an insider with relevant access?"
"Hmm. A cop would have access to the personal records of drunk drivers?"
"Exactly. In that case, he'd find the order to eliminate the checkpoints strange."
The three men fell silent for a moment.
The first to speak was Seo Gichan.
"If anything, him being a cop would make it easier for us. If civilians keep dying even with the checkpoints gone, the odds of an insider spike."
Pulling a drunk driver's records was impossible for anyone outside the system — an insider or the police themselves.
"I suppose you could look at it that way..."
Kang Yeji nodded.
Lee Hocheon ate dinner and set out for a checkpoint.
He sought out one in a completely different part of town from the ones he had visited yesterday.
Gone?
He roamed central Seoul for a long while and found no checkpoint anywhere.
So they're ending the deaths by ending the checkpoints entirely?
There was no other explanation.
Unbelievable. I tell them to stop drunk driving, and they get rid of the checkpoints altogether?
What the situation demanded was reinforcement, not dismantling — and yet they had simply made the checkpoints vanish.
That this was their response even after receiving his message was a declaration of open defiance.
No choice today, then.
Finding drunk drivers on his own was difficult.
If he planted himself outside bars he could find a few, but he had no way to prove they were driving drunk.
Head home for now.
Back home, he reviewed the list of drunk-driving celebrities he had compiled in advance.
— Seo Arin
— Kim Jaejin
Seo Arin was the nation's sweetheart, an idol with global stardom.
An innocent face, spotless conduct, extraordinary talent — she had the whole package.
She had once been caught drunk driving at twenty, but after a tearful apology framing it as youthful indiscretion, her career had continued unbroken.
Pretty, I'll give her that.
He studied her face for a moment, then turned to Kim Jaejin.
A city councilman, the man had no fewer than three drunk-driving convictions.
Talent, or just the luck of his district?
He was already serving his fifth term, apparently keeping the local electorate firmly in his pocket as a five-time winner.
In the photograph, a pleasant-faced middle-aged man was smiling.
Without a flicker of emotion, Lee Hocheon designed both of their deaths.
There will be shockwaves.
Seo Arin above all.
Her death would send tremors not just through South Korea but across the entire world.
Her image was the very picture of an angel.
The public sentiment that had been fairly favorable toward him might well turn.
Pulling the root is what matters.
No crime was punished more leniently relative to its gravity than drunk driving.
Drink to your heart's content, insist on diminished capacity afterward, and it usually ended in a fine.
The sentences were absurdly light, too.
— Driver who plowed onto a sidewalk and killed a father of two: 10 years.
— Driver who struck and killed a six-year-old at play: 8 years.
— Driver who killed a college student crossing at a crosswalk: 9 years.
Drinking and driving without an accident wasn't virtue — it was nothing but borrowed luck.
They are merely killers-in-waiting.
The recidivism rate exceeded forty percent.
Nearly half of all drunk drivers would do it again.
The bud had to be cut before it bloomed.
Drunk driving was all the more vicious a crime precisely because the killing was never intended.
"You're sure this place is safe?"
Seo Arin had poured a fortune into a hunter guild in exchange for personal protection.
Ever since the drunk drivers started dying, she had canceled every engagement on her schedule and gone into hiding.
"Yes. Not even an S-rank hunter could get in easily."
"Don't leave my side for a single hour. Not when you sleep, not when you use the bathroom."
"Understood."
Park Hayoon, the A-rank hunter assigned to her, found Seo Arin insufferable.
She was nothing like the personality the public knew.
What's with the little brat and that attitude? Was all of it an act?
She had been a fan of Seo Arin's.
She'd fallen for that crystal-clear voice, and fallen even harder for her character and conduct offstage.
So when the protection request came in, she had begged the guild master all day to let her take the job herself.
"I'm going to do a face mask and sleep now. I'm a light sleeper, so be careful not to wake me."
"Yes, ma'am."
Seo Arin climbed into bed, and Park Hayoon took the chair directly beside it.
The plan was to guard her in shifts.
"Lights off."
Seo Arin ordered.
Ugh. I want to smack her just once.
The lamp switch was right there beside the bed.
A distance she could reach by sitting up slightly and extending her hand.
It said everything about how entitled the woman was.
Click.
Darkness fell, and Park Hayoon quietly returned to her chair and kept watch.
One hour. Two.... By the fourth, she left the room for the shift change.
And the moment she stepped out, Seo Arin's hands moved — and began squeezing her own throat.
Her face flushed red almost instantly, then after a moment turned blue.
Just then, the door burst open.
"Stop!"
The hunter arriving for the shift change sprinted to her side.
Hearing the commotion, Park Hayoon came rushing in right after.