Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 50
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“Whack!”
Kim Jun tossed aside his spent plastic gun and drew a new plastic gun, facing off with the hostage taker.
Shouts and curses flew in a tense standoff.
Gaengwan clamped the plastic gun he had snatched between his teeth and ran on all fours like a dog. As if he had once been a dog in a previous life, he crawled deftly, moving like a beast, approaching the culprit from the opposite aisle while the man was distracted by Kim Jun.
The seats hid Gaengwan’s lowered posture, allowing him to slip into the opposite entrance where the hostage taker stood.
Rising to his feet, Gaengwan grabbed the plastic gun from his mouth. Then he aimed it at the back of the culprit’s head.
Before the culprit could even turn his head to check the strange sensation on his skull, Gaengwan pulled the trigger.
Bang!
“Kyah!”
The bullet pierced straight through his skull, turning his brain to mush, and the now-lifeless terrorist collapsed in a heap.
Ignoring the screaming flight attendant, Gaengwan poked his head out.
“Got them all?”
At Gaengwan’s words, Kim Jun and Tom looked around and nodded.
While Tom soothed the flight attendant who had been taken hostage, Kim Jun spoke to Gaengwan in a worried tone.
“Did you really have to pull the trigger without any hesitation?”
“Isn’t it the international rule not to negotiate with hostage takers?”
Otherwise criminals would find hostage-taking too profitable, right?
But at those words, Kim Jun grumbled inwardly. Since when did you care so much about international law? But he didn’t say it aloud and changed the subject instead.
“I suppose we can rest a little now.”
To this, Gaengwan asked back:
“Really? For real? Seriously?”
Why was he emphasizing it like that? Kim Jun’s expression froze. No way…
“... Mr. Lee thinks this isn’t over yet, does he?”
“Obviously. This is a carefully planned hijacking. You really think the culprits are only these guys?”
Just looking at their weapons, it was clear how much effort had gone into the operation. The guns smuggled past such tight security. The design itself would be uploaded into the security database once discovered, meaning it would never be usable again.
Even Kim Jun could understand that whoever planned this would not tolerate failure.
“.. You’re saying more of them could be hiding among the passengers.”
“Well, you decide.”
After hearing Gaengwan’s words, Kim Jun quickly conferred with Tom and then asked Gaengwan:
“Can you help identify the culprits?”
Gaengwan nodded.
With help from the crew, they broadcast an announcement informing the passengers that the hijackers had been subdued and asked them to stay calm. They also obtained the passenger list, helped in no small part by that FBI badge.
But this was only the beginning.
The passenger whose shoulder Gaengwan touched looked startled and glanced at Kim Jun.
[What?]
[I asked if you’re working with the culprits.]
[That’s absurd, ]
[Please answer only yes or no. We don’t have time.]
“NO!”
Kim Jun would ask one or two simple questions and finally ask if the passenger was collaborating with the hijackers, while Gaengwan checked their physiological reactions before moving on.
Interviewing nearly 400 passengers individually was exhausting, so Kim Jun asked the flight attendants to tell him if anyone was missing from their seat due to the restroom or other reasons.
The plane, struck by an unprecedented crisis, diverted to the nearest airport, and just before arrival, the verification process ended.
“Ah! Ah! Ahem! So we’ve checked everyone.”
Kim Jun’s lips were dry and his throat burned from continuous questioning, but he could finally sigh in relief.
“Fortunately, it seems there are no additional accomplices.”
“There were none? Really?”
At Gaengwan’s single sentence, the relaxing Kim Jun froze.
“There were more?”
With a subtle smile, Gaengwan held up two fingers.
Two of them had been hiding disguised as passengers.
“Which ones?”
“K14, B20.”
“We’ll have to subdue them simultaneously.”
Fortunately, they still had guns they hadn’t fired yet, so subduing them wouldn’t be difficult.
Gaengwan asked:
“Which side should I help with?”
“Stay out of sight and watch. Step in only if something goes wrong.”
Kim Jun’s words earned a nod from Gaengwan.
Kim Jun hoped nothing would go wrong,
but of course, it did.
The passenger at B20, or rather the terrorist, drew a plastic gun and resisted when Tom approached to subdue him.
Tom and the man grappled, gripping each other’s gun-wielding wrists.
Gaengwan moved swiftly.
From behind, he stomped on the back of the man’s knee, forcing him down on one leg, then immediately crushed his ankle. As the man screamed, Gaengwan grabbed his right arm, slammed his knee into the man’s nape to smash him into the floor, and twisted his shoulder.
Crunch!
“Gyaaaah!”
Hearing the unrestrained scream of agony, Kim Jun, having just finished subduing the other culprit, returned and frowned.
“You really don’t hesitate for even a second.”
“Don’t you know that sloppy mercy invites tragedy?”
While Kim Jun shook his head slowly, the plane landed.
A tactical response team waiting outside stormed in and secured the area. Kim Jun and Tom showed their FBI IDs and coordinated with the team while waiting.
Passengers disembarked first, followed by Gaengwan’s group accompanied, either escorted or monitored, by two or three SWAT members as they entered the airport.
And then came the flood of flashes.
“Hey! Hero Pee!”
“Look at me! Please!”
Reporters and cameras rushed in but were held back by airport security and the SWAT team.
“What on earth is this?”
“Puhahahahahaha!”
While Gaengwan looked around cluelessly, Tom suddenly burst into hysterical laughter. Something was so funny that tears streamed down his cheeks, and he held his phone in hand.
Feeling Gaengwan’s eyes on him, Tom wiped his tears with one hand and showed the screen to Gaengwan. A video had been uploaded on what looked like social media.
[I’ll show you!]
It was the exact scene of him peeing on the culprit’s face.
Gaengwan and Tom exchanged glances. A snort burst out of Gaengwan.
“Khff!”
“Pff!”
Puhahahahaha!
Both of them burst into laughter simultaneously. Reporters snapped photos like they were waiting for this moment, but even that didn’t stop Gaengwan from laughing.
Someone had filmed that scene and uploaded it to SNS! What a world, what extraordinary people!
Embarrassed? Worried his face was exposed?
Why live if not to laugh?
Meanwhile, Kim Jun, who didn’t understand why the two were laughing so hard, finally saw the screen Tom shoved toward him,
and he, too, burst into laughter.
“Pff!”
He did say he’d stir the pot, but this was how? No wonder he’d smelled trouble.
But raised by Korean grandparents, Kim Jun was someone who valued dignity, so he didn’t laugh as wildly as Tom. The cameras and reporters were filming. He could be immortalized in embarrassment forever.
So he strained to hold back laughter while glancing at Gaengwan, who was laughing like it was someone else’s problem.
It’s not someone else’s problem, it’s YOUR problem!
= = = = =
Hero Pee, or Urine Hero.
A nickname that exploded globally after the incident where Gaengwan subdued a terrorist by peeing on him. Facing a gun-wielding culprit with his pants down and urinating, his boldness captivated the world’s attention instantly.
But for various reasons, he never disclosed his real name. Naturally, curiosity peaked. And eventually, one sharp-eyed foreign journalist exposed his identity.
Across the vast Pacific, in the country rising in global brand value thanks to the Korean Wave, nestled between the giants China and Japan,
it was none other than the infamous criminal who had briefly made foreign headlines by escaping prison and stabbing a congressman, leaving him half-paralyzed.
His name: Gaengwan Lee!
But once people discovered who he was, more questions arose.
Why was someone who should be locked in a Korean prison on a passenger plane heading from the U.S. to Korea?
After relentless digging by overeager American journalists, the truth surfaced,
he was the most accurate, fast, and uncheatable human lie detector in existence.
He could detect lies even from those trained to fool conventional systems.
Though technically a foreign criminal, thanks to his abilities, U.S. authorities had quickly exposed terrorist cells and drug rings operating within the country. The previously celebrated operations?
They had all been made possible by Gaengwan Lee’s cooperation!
At this point, anyone who followed the news knew his name.
His criminal past resurfaced. U.S. journalists covered how he’d become a criminal and why he attacked a congressman, feeding the curiosity of their audiences.
The reaction was explosive.
He was a dark hero who punished evils the law couldn’t touch.
Gaengwan Lee became cemented in America’s collective memory as a real-life antihero. His popularity was cult-like.
He became so popular that a call girl who had slept with him appeared on a famous talk show and said:
“Everyone saw his urine pressure, right? He’s an incredible stallion. And his technique? Amazing. I didn’t even notice the night passing. That’s when I learned what it truly means when people say your bones melt.”
For her, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,
her predecessor, also an escort girl, had become involved with a famous soccer player, turned into a celebrity, used that fame to attract investors, and built a lingerie empire worth billions.
Since Gaengwan Lee never appeared on talk shows or gave interviews, because he was a foreign criminal, she got to claim the spotlight for herself.
Meanwhile, some worried this phenomenon glorified criminals, but in a capitalist society, anything profitable becomes acceptable.
After all, hadn’t a drug dealer and murderer become a celebrity simply because he was sexy and handsome? Considering Western openness, the positive sentiment toward Gaengwan seemed almost wholesome.
He wasn’t a drug dealer.
He never harmed innocents.
He escaped prison to avenge a wrongfully slain colleague prosecutor.
And he’d confronted a powerful politician head-on.
He even refused to appeal his sentence, reinforcing an image of a righteous man fighting a massive power structure,
at least in the minds of U.S. journalists and audiences.
In the age of globalization and instant information, foreign news spreads freely.
News about him flowed back into South Korea, and his name resurfaced once again, much to the displeasure of certain powerful people.
“You’re back?”
“Oh! Warden! Long time no see!”
Because of the hijacking incident, Gaengwan’s home-leave schedule had been delayed by about a week.
The reason it was delayed so long was that evidence showed the terrorists had specifically targeted an FBI human asset…in other words, Gaengwan.