Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Simultaneous Incidents (9)
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Heo Sung-chan. And Yoo Jin-su.
They were commonly known by the ridiculous nickname "Jin-su-seong-chan" derived from their names, but they were quite capable hitmen.
That was why Kim Sun-woo had hired equally skilled "errand boys" to deal with them. To begin with, it was two against twelve. Unless it was some third-rate comic that snot-nosed kids read, there was no way to overcome that kind of numerical disadvantage in reality. That was what Kim Sun-woo thought.
So Kim Sun-woo assigned two of his errand boys to the hitmen and leisurely smoked a cigarette outside the cathedral.
White smoke rose, drawing irregular patterns in the air.
Ten minutes.
That should be plenty of time to subdue the two hitmen. With that thought, Kim Sun-woo wandered aimlessly around the cathedral grounds. Worry about the perimeter? No need. His only enemies were inside the cathedral.
Right.
That complacent thinking was Kim Sun-woo's one and only mistake.
"Hey."
"Huh?"
Kim Sun-woo turned his head. In the darkness, amid the dense thicket of trees, a silver-haired woman was staring at him.
"Who—"
Before Kim Sun-woo's question could even take shape, Ji Ye-won moved. Flash! The purple blade that shot from her hand sliced straight toward his throat in an instant.
"Eek?!"
"Shut up and kneel."
The takedown was instantaneous. Ji Ye-won burst from the bushes and pressed a razor-sharp blade to Kim Sun-woo's neck. He had no choice but to obediently drop to his knees as she commanded.
"Wh-who are you? Why would you do this to—"
"Shut it. Don't turn your head. Answer only what I ask."
Ji Ye-won was a pro at this sort of thing. She gave Kim Sun-woo no room to maneuver whatsoever. The cold words spilling from her lips instilled an instinctive terror in him.
If he disobeyed her even slightly, that sharp blade pressed to his throat would slice through his soft flesh.
Kim Sun-woo wanted to look at the woman's face and demand her identity, but he couldn't do a thing. He just swallowed hard and stared at the cathedral where his hired errand boys were.
-Clang! Kaang! Boom! Kwang!
A cacophony echoed from the cathedral. A fierce battle was raging.
Even if he shouted for help right now, none of those errand boys inside would hear him.
They'd called his earlier judgment his one and only blunder. Well, this was another one born of the same complacency. If he'd even pulled one guy aside to guard him, he wouldn't have been subdued by Ji Ye-won this easily.
"You're Kim Sun-woo, the research assistant, right?"
"Wh-what if I'm not?"
"Just confirming. I already know your face. I'm going to ask you some questions now. Answer them honestly. Got it?"
"……."
"Answer me."
-Crunch!
Ji Ye-won grabbed one of Kim Sun-woo's ears and twisted it with all her might. Right away, the sound of bone and flesh grinding reverberated through his mind.
"A-aaahhh! Aaaargh!"
"I said answer me. Honestly."
It felt like an entire side of his head was being torn off. Kim Sun-woo thought he might go mad from the pain. But with the blade at his throat, he couldn't even thrash around.
He'd hoped that scream might draw one of the errand boys out to check, but no one emerged. His expression soured further.
"Can you answer properly this time?"
"Y-yes! I'll answer! I'll answer!"
"Good. First question. Spill everything you know about the Kang Ha-neul kidnapping plan."
"Th-that's……!"
A sudden core question.
Kim Sun-woo couldn't hide his utter bewilderment. How did this woman know about that operation—something only a select few at the lab were privy to?
'No way……!'
For a split second, Na Ju-yong's words flashed through his mind.
Min Chae-ryeong. Academy Security Force Team Leader.
She was the biggest obstacle in this whole affair.
Kim Sun-woo clearly remembered Na Ju-yong mentioning it in passing. No way was this woman Min Chae-ryeong herself? Or one of her underlings?
Either way, he couldn't just answer that question straight. Kang Ha-neul was the core of the multi-ability research. Na Ju-yong, and the Ye-il Group backing him, would stop at nothing to secure that research sample.
However.
"Hesitating."
-Crunch!!
"Aaahhh! Aaaaargh!!!!!!"
That momentary hesitation was enough to test Ji Ye-won's patience.
She gripped Kim Sun-woo's shoulder brutally. With the snap of breaking bone, his left arm twisted in an unnatural direction and dangled limply. Kim Sun-woo wasn't a superhuman. How could an ordinary body withstand superhuman strength?
"Kuh, kuhek! Uhhek! Uhhheeeek……."
Moreover, he wasn't even combat personnel—just an intellectual, a researcher. Facing agony like nothing he'd ever known, tears, snot, and all manner of fluids streamed from his face as he trembled uncontrollably.
'I-if this keeps up, I'm dead……!'
Logically, Ji Ye-won wouldn't kill him since she needed info from him. But Kim Sun-woo couldn't muster that rational thought amid the pain shooting up his spine.
"Sm-smartphone……!"
She won't kill me if I talk. That primal urge filled his mind.
"Smartphone?"
"Th-the info's on the smartphone! I-I need to check it, so pl-please let me take it out……!"
"Fine. Hurry up. But you know what happens if you try anything funny, right?"
Ji Ye-won's left hand—the one not generating the blade—slowly traced his lips. Teeth. After the ear and shoulder, it was the teeth next. Her gesture made that clear. Kim Sun-woo flinched violently at the motion and fumbled in his pocket with shaking hands.
Finally, he pulled out a smartphone.
It looked utterly ordinary on the surface, but that wasn't his real goal.
'Take this……!'
-Beeeep!
The moment he performed a specific action on the smartphone, an ultra-high-frequency sound blasted in all directions. Inaudible to normals, but a specific pitch that rattled superhumans' minds.
"Kyaaak?!"
Ji Ye-won reflexively released her grip on Kim Sun-woo at the brain-rending noise she'd never heard before.
"Hah!"
He didn't miss the opening and broke free. And not just that—like getting revenge for his arm and ear, he whipped out a pistol from his coat and swiftly aimed at Ji Ye-won.
-Bang! Bang! Bang! Baaang!
Deafening gunshots. Leaping muzzle flashes.
No superhuman could walk away unscathed from .44 Magnum rounds fired at close range. A high B-rank might endure, but Ji Ye-won wasn't at that level.
And every bullet targeted her vitals. Kim Sun-woo showed impressive marksmanship for a researcher—four shots aimed at her brow, throat, left shoulder, and chest.
He'd won.
The instant the bullets fired—before either could even register it—Kim Sun-woo thought so. It was a sound judgment.
-Ting! Tingting! Ting!
But this time, it was complacent.
"Huh?"
"……Huh?"
Their surprised exclamations overlapped. Amid intense sparks, the bullets ricocheted off a transparent barrier in front of Ji Ye-won and fell harmlessly.
It was the shield from the Frostflame Cross Ahn Su-ho had given her—one use per day that unconditionally blocked life-threatening attacks.
Using a defense that could withstand a dragon's breath on mere bullets was like slaughtering a chicken with an ox cleaver, but neither Kim Sun-woo nor Ji Ye-won fully grasped that yet.
Unlike the stunned Kim Sun-woo, however, Ji Ye-won was a trained professional.
"You bastard!"
"Eek?!"
Her sword reflected the light. Whoosh! The blade traced a beautiful arc and pierced Kim Sun-woo's right shoulder in one motion. The smartphone emitting the high-frequency noise had been sliced in half mid-swing.
-Thud!
She shoved the sword as if to knock him flat, then pinned his stomach with one foot and said,
"Hey."
In a utterly chilling voice.
"Wanna die?"
She needed info, so killing him made no sense. But Kim Sun-woo was too dim to deduce that much. Not normally, but at least not right now.
"Kkhek! S-sorry. I-I'm s-sor……!"
"If you're sorry, shut up and answer my questions. No next time."
"That's a problem for me!"
At that moment, a new voice cut into the tense standoff between the two.
"I have business with that researcher too! Jumping the gun like that is no good!"
Heo Sung-chan strode out through the cathedral doors amid billowing dust, with Yoo Jin-su quietly following behind.
"H-how?!"
"How what?! You thought those losers could kill us?!"
Blood splattered their bodies here and there, but no serious wounds. Most of it wasn't even theirs—it belonged to the guys who'd rushed them.
"How did you survive?! Six C-ranks and six B-ranks! That should've been enough to take out two B-ranks!"
"Hahat! For a science nerd, your math sucks!"
Heo Sung-chan hooked arms with Yoo Jin-su boastfully. A lively voice burst from his lips.
"Our partnership isn't addition—it's multiplication!! Or squared? Whatever!"
"Wh-what does that……."
"Anyway, sis! I got first dibs on that guy, so mind stepping aside?"
"Hold on, Sung-chan. That lady over there... no way she's……."
Yoo Jin-su muttered in recognition of Ji Ye-won. Only then did Heo Sung-chan clock her face too.
"Oh! It's Ye-won! What the hell, why are you here?!"
"……."
"Ah, no way—you're with them too? Didn't know! No wonder I felt drawn to you from the start—we're in the same line of work! Uhahahat!"
"Ye-won... was it?"
Unlike the hyper Heo Sung-chan, Yoo Jin-su approached her coolly and steadily.
"We have business with that man too. If you're planning to kill him, could we wrap up our business first?"
"……What's your business?"
"Not killing! But we'll make him regret betraying us so bad he'll wish he was dead—with torture!"
"For real?"
"……After we extract some info, yeah, like my partner says."
Yoo Jin-su was rational unlike Heo Sung-chan, but he had no intention of letting the traitor Kim Sun-woo live either. That was one of the slum hitmen's rules.
Traitors get what's coming to them.
For Kim Sun-woo, who'd summoned them for a hit only to try killing them, nothing less than death would suffice.
"Fine. Once I get the info I want, he's all yours."
"Sweet! No fighting you—huge relief! I hate clashing with girls I like!"
"Lucky for you. I didn't wanna fight you either."
"Uhahahaha! Really? You like me too?"
Ji Ye-won gave a wry smile at the question and glanced at the cathedral.
'Six C-ranks and six B-ranks, huh.'
That was no small force objectively. At least, nothing Ji Ye-won alone could overcome head-on.
Yet this guy in front of her had overturned a 2-vs-12 disadvantage and won. And pretty easily, too.
From what Kim Sun-woo said, they were C-ranks at best, maybe B. Despite the numbers, flipping it so handily meant their skills—not specs—were insanely high.
'No need to make enemies rashly. At least, not if those two aren't after Kang Ha-neul.'
From the conversation, it seemed unlikely they still wanted Ha-neul. But she had to confirm.
"Just so we're clear—I'm on the side protecting Kang Ha-neul, the girl this bastard was trying to kidnap. Where do you two stand?"
"We were gonna kidnap her originally!"
"But not anymore."
"Right! This researcher hired us again for the Ha-neul job, but as you see, he stabbed us in the back hard!"
"The previous contract was settled with the advance returned. And the new one fell through before it even started. So we have no plans to go after Kang Ha-neul now."
"OK. Guess you and I aren't enemies for now."
Heo Sung-chan nodded vigorously. Yoo Jin-su silently agreed, so Ji Ye-won looked back down at Kim Sun-woo.
"Hear that? Know what you gotta do now?"
"I-I……."
"Spill. Everything. Unless you wanna die."
"……."
Kim Sun-woo looked up at Ji Ye-won's forceful words, trembling.
"Hee, heehee."
A sinister smirk crept across his lips. Ji Ye-won wondered if the guy had lost it, but his words were far from what she'd expected.
"If you're trying to save that girl, too late! Our new hitman's already kidnapped her!"
"……Is that true?"
"Probably! He bragged right in front of us that it was done two days ago!"
Ji Ye-won let out a deep sigh at Heo Sung-chan's words. Misreading her reaction, Kim Sun-woo grew even bolder and shouted.
"K-Kang Ha-neul's already in our hands! If you wanna save her, y-you'd better do as I say nice and easy!"
"Bullshit."
"Wh-what? Bu-bullshiiiit! Aaaargh!!!"
Ji Ye-won twisted the blade protruding from her wrist 90 degrees. Grind! Flesh tore as she wrenched his shoulder.
"Aaagh!! Aaaaagh!!!"
"Guess you don't get your position yet. You're not in any spot to talk big to me."
"Aaagh! Uhhek! Uhh, uheeeek!"
"Shut up for a sec. Gotta make a call."
Ji Ye-won immediately dialed Min Chae-ryeong and cut straight to asking about Kang Ha-neul's whereabouts.
But.
"What? Kang Ha-neul's fine?"
Min Chae-ryeong replied that Ha-neul was safe and sound. It contradicted Kim Sun-woo's claim. As Ji Ye-won tilted her head in confusion, Heo Sung-chan shot his hand up.
"It's Stephanie!"
"What? Stephanie?"
"Stephanie's a shapeshifter! She's probably impersonating that Ha-neul girl so no one notices the kidnapping!"
"Hear that? That's what they say."
Min Chae-ryeong, hearing Heo Sung-chan over the phone, fell deep into thought.
'Shapeshifter? Ha-neul's a fake right now? Already kidnapped?'
'No way. We'd been monitoring Ha-neul's every move. We had real-time reports on her location and actions! No sign of kidnapping at all.'
'Or... maybe. A blind spot in surveillance, somewhere without CCTV, and then she transforms into Ha-neul... Like a bathroom? Yeah, possible. How could I miss such a basic mistake……!'
From scant info, Min Chae-ryeong pieced together a near-truthful guess and irritably ruffled her hair.
'When did the kidnapping happen? Just now? Or days ago? If it's been a while, she might've been moved somewhere hidden from us. In that case…….'
Rather than hunt for Ha-neul's location, grab the perp first and extract info.
With that, Min Chae-ryeong checked Ha-neul's last reported position.
"……Huh?"
A quiet exclamation slipped out.
"Ahn Su-ho's place...?"
Ha-neul's location—or rather, Stephanie disguised as Ha-neul—last reported was Ahn Su-ho's house. About an hour ago, she'd entered and hadn't come out since.
"What the hell is...?"
Saying that, Min Chae-ryeong quickly called Ahn Su-ho. If he was with this Stephanie, have him subdue her before she noticed.
However.
"Ahn Su-ho. Listen carefully from now on. The Kang Ha-neul with you right now is—"
-Team Leader. Already caught her.
"…………What?"
Min Chae-ryeong shuddered involuntarily at the icy voice from the phone.
-That damn kidnapper. Already got her.
At that moment. Ahn Su-ho's studio apartment in Sokcho, Gangwon Province.
"Eeek! Eeek!"
"Stay still. I could kill you right now."
In the wrecked center of the room, Ahn Su-ho's right hand—blazing with talisman light—clutched Stephanie's collar.
"Let go right now! Do you know who I am?!"
"Don't care who you are. You minor villain who doesn't even appear in the main story. Shut up and answer my questions."
Ahn Su-ho's eyes burned with unprecedented murderous intent. Pure hostility, pure rage filled them as he glared at the woman before him like he wanted to kill her.
"Hey."
Dare he say it, since possessing this world, he'd never been this furious.
"Where's Ha-neul?"