Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator : M.N 1391
Chapter: 66
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“What are you two talking about?”
Before Kim Jun could say anything, Kyung-wan answered.
“You two sex about.”
“Mr. Lee!”
Kim Jun flinched in shock and shouted, and Stacy tilted her head at Kyung-wan’s clumsy English. Then, after seeing Kim Jun’s reaction, she understood what had happened and covered her mouth with her hand as she let out a soft laugh.
Kim Jun couldn’t dare meet her eyes. He covered his face with his hand. Why was he the one who had to feel embarrassed?
Thankfully, the awkward moment didn’t last long. Stacy smoothly shifted the topic and refreshed the atmosphere. Something along the lines of: everyone's waiting, so stop the nonsense and get moving?
The instant she diverted the conversation, Kim Jun used that opening to shove Kyung-wan forward before he could say anything else weird, and the two got into the car Stacy was driving.
On their way to the destination, the group chatted about various things. At one point, Kyung-wan spoke with a puzzled tone.
“If it’s that Manny Penis-like disguise ability user, shouldn’t an investigator like Stacy be more necessary? You have time to come pick us up?”
Kim Jun translated the question. Honestly, he didn’t want to translate something like that, but since Stacy asked, he had no choice.
To Kyung-wan’s question, she answered:
[There are capable investigators besides me. Manny Faces can change his body shape, but it seems he can’t change his body scent.]
“Bloodhound? That guy?”
[Hahaha! What a funny nickname.]
It was a funny nickname, but he wasn’t just someone with good eyesight. With experience as a former private detective, a superhuman level of smell, and the FBI’s resources behind him, Kyung-wan hadn’t had much room to shine.
[Found him. I’d say there’s about a 99% chance he’s here.]
As soon as the group arrived, with Bloodhound’s confident declaration, a joint arrest operation between the FBI Superhuman Crime Division agents and the LAPD began.
Since the target could instantly disguise himself as someone else, they needed an ability user who could track and identify him. Stacy was also needed for the same reason.
Watching people hurriedly gear up and prepare the operation, Kyung-wan poked Kim Jun in the side.
“Did I really need to be here? I’m basically useless here.”
“Then you should’ve stayed in that Japanese jail cell where they don’t even feed you.”
Startled by the sharp return, Kyung-wan blinked. Why did people who talked with him often end up talking like this? Even Director Hong was like that.
Kyung-wan recalled the saying “Black ink, he who is near ink becomes black” and looked at Kim Jun with a pitiful expression. If he became like Kyung-wan, life in society would be tough… tisk, tisk.
Meanwhile, Kim Jun felt uncomfortable seeing that pitying look. Why was he looking at him like that out of nowhere?
If he knew what Kyung-wan was thinking, he’d feel terribly wronged. Kyung-wan had no idea how mentally drained Kim Jun was because of him. Even on the drive in Stacy’s car, every time Kyung-wan kept saying “Manny Penis, Manny Penis,” he had to correct it to “Manny Faces.” It took real effort.
Stacy treated it like a pronunciation mistake from a foreigner whose English wasn’t great, but in Korea? People would already be screaming sexual harassment.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Well…”
Kyung-wan was about to answer honestly. To say: your tone has gotten rude, unlike before.
But fortunately(?), someone interrupted before he could open his mouth. A white man.
“Mr. Lee!”
The man sounded genuinely surprised to see Kyung-wan.
Kyung-wan looked at Kim Jun and asked who he was.
“He’s Jamie, SSA of the Superhuman Crime Division.”
“What’s that?”
“Supervisory Special Agent. In simple terms, the person in charge on-site.”
“Oh-ho!”
Kyung-wan nodded, took Jamie’s extended hand, and shook it with a grin.
“Nice to meet you. My name is Kyung-wan Lee.”
“Haha! I know-yoou.”
“You speak Korean?”
“A little. Hal-yu is dae-seh-jwan-ayo.”
A short bout of small talk followed. During that, Kyung-wan learned that this white man, Jamie, liked Hallyu, especially girl groups.
Hmm… Eastern Asians look younger to Westerners in general… maybe he’s… lo– hmm.
Kyung-wan stopped the rude speculation there. There was no reason to harbor strange prejudices against someone who was showing him kindness.
Jamie, the Supervisory Special Agent, already knew a lot about Kyung-wan. He even knew about the incident where Kyung-wan was detained in Japan and seemed quite interested.
“You’re not a superhuman, so how did you win against a muscler?”
His Korean was practically a dialect, but Kyung-wan understood through instinct. Korean was a language you understood half by intuition anyway. You say “that thing, that thing,” and somehow it makes sense.
“What’s a muscler?”
“A term referring to superhumans with brute-strength abilities.”
Kim Jun added that explanation. It seemed he also wanted to hear the answer.
How did someone like Kyung-wan, who didn’t seem to have a physical enhancement ability, beat someone with superhuman strength?
If they could learn the method, it could be useful for future cases involving musclers.
Kyung-wan shrugged and explained. Human bodies weren’t perfect no matter how much muscle someone built, there were bound to be weaknesses. When fighting Sergeant Kawaguchi, he simply assumed the weak point would be the bones.
If the muscles were thick and hard, don’t attack the outside, attack the inside! So he targeted the bones protecting the lungs and kept ramming his chest to disrupt his breathing.
Both Jamie and Kim Jun nodded, impressed.
“But how did you know the muscler’s bones would be weak?”
“I just saw how ridiculously he puffed up his muscles and thought, ah, this guy is obsessed with muscles. You don’t need that much to beat someone up. So I figured he must be neglecting something else. Luckily, my hunch was right.”
Muscles, ligaments, and bones were interconnected. But their growth and training speeds differed, something a non-expert wouldn’t know.
From that angle, Sergeant Kawaguchi clearly wasn’t a body specialist. If he understood the importance of ligaments and bones, he wouldn’t have built muscles like that.
“Did you ever consider your assumption might be wrong?”
“Of course I did. In that case, I planned to run away or kneel down and say, ‘I apologize for upsetting the great superhuman officer of the glorious Japanese police.’”
If the ribs were strengthened by ability and there was no valid attack route, what else could he do? Admitting defeat hurt, but being able to admit defeat was part of being a mature adult.
Claiming you never fail and can never fail was something even a five-year-old wouldn’t say.
Kim Jun and Jamie were stunned by both his insight and his thoroughness in preparing for worst-case scenarios.
Flexible enough to throw away pride and dignity at any moment? If Kyung-wan had been that flexible, he wouldn’t have ended up treating prison like home.
As people began to move out, Jamie turned to Kyung-wan with a suggestion.
“Wanna come?”
Kim Jun looked at Kyung-wan. He was letting him decide.
Kyung-wan thought for a moment, then nodded. He was bored anyway, and since he left Japan under the pretext of helping with the investigation, he wasn’t shameless enough to say he wanted to rest because it was bothersome.
So Kyung-wan and Kim Jun quietly followed the LAPD SWAT team and FBI agents in Jamie’s car.
The group headed toward a slum in LA for the Manny Faces arrest operation.
Looking at homeless tents and desolate streets, Kyung-wan spoke up.
“This is where that Manny Penis guy is hiding?”
“Yes. And why does Mr. Lee keep calling him Manny Penis? It’s Manny Faces.”
As someone who tried to live as a clean-cut gentleman, Kim Jun found the constant repetition of “penis” extremely unpleasant.
To him, Kyung-wan replied with a thick skin:
“Isn’t ‘penis’ easier to pronounce and kinda rolls off the tongue better?”
I swear, I’m gonna smack that mouth.
If it were just an unconscious mistake, it wouldn’t be so annoying. But this? He was doing it on purpose.
But Kim Jun had no time to argue. Jamie announced their arrival.
“We arribe-d. I’m-a go now-yoou.”
Jamie went to join the FBI agents as the on-site commander, and the arrest operation began.
“LAPD! Open up!”
The LAPD SWAT team kicked the door open.
Watching this, Kyung-wan asked Kim Jun:
“Why isn’t it FBI Open up!?”
“It can’t be helped. The U.S. allows guns, and superhuman agents are valuable.”
The FBI gave authority over the arrest to the LAPD in exchange for ensuring the safety of precious superhuman agents.
Of course, they didn’t just give up authority, they secured full rights over the interrogation afterward.
Shouts and a few gunshots echoed from inside. But the atmosphere didn’t look good.
Jamie and the superhuman agents looked baffled.
“They say the suspect isn’t there.”
Standing beside the car watching, Kim Jun spoke with a stiff expression.
Bloodhound, whom Kyung-wan had nicknamed, raised his voice.
[He was definitely here just moments ago!]
If he was right, the suspect had escaped only recently. Jamie quickly ordered Vince and Stacy to track Manny Faces.
“What should we do?”
Kyung-wan asked Kim Jun, but Kim Jun was already drawing the handgun from his holster, ready to join.
Seeing that, Kyung-wan cautiously asked:
“Can’t I just stay here?”
But Kim Jun shook his head.
“Mr. Lee’s ability might be useful.”
“That’s baseless.”
“I’ll give you a handgun. Please show that same remarkable accuracy you did before.”
It was bold of Kim Jun to hand a gun to a foreign civilian, even one from an allied nation. Kyung-wan hesitated.
He did feel a wave of annoyance, but giving in to laziness only corrupted a person. And since the FBI had treated him kindly, he figured he should follow Kim Jun.
Who knows? If he contributed something, maybe that fiery David guy would reward him again.
The Superhuman Division placed Vince the tracker at the front and headed to the place where Manny Faces had vanished. It looked like an ordinary home, but was actually the base of a small gang that packaged drugs and sold them in the slums.
Did the gang members know their boss had disappeared and Manny Faces had been impersonating him?
The SWAT officers questioned several captured gang members, but they all claimed ignorance. They thought LAPD had come to arrest them for drug dealing and only resisted a bit.
Resisted? Ah, so that’s why they fired their guns? If Kyung-wan had heard, he’d line them up and smack their heads one by one.
Anyway, Vince entered the room where the gang boss, suspected to be Manny Faces, had been staying.
He sniffed the air. The scent still lingered strongly enough to prove that someone had definitely been here just moments ago.