Chapter 65
Chapter 65
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Vampire Detective
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The surrounding vampire hunters reacted with lightning speed. They aimed their guns at the suddenly appearing Red Light and pulled the triggers without a moment's hesitation.
They were prepared to sacrifice not only themselves but their comrades as well to take him down.
'Still too late.'
They were already within Red Light's range. Just before the bullets rained down, he yanked the knife from Shin Dae-jun's neck and ducked low, surging forward. No ordinary human could keep up with his acceleration skill-enhanced movements.
The red blade danced. It sliced through the enemies without mercy.
Stab-proof vests were useless. Neither the blade's razor sharpness nor Red Light's superhuman strength could be stopped by something like that.
When the red clown's deadly performance ended, his surroundings were littered with corpses and drenched in blood.
Red Light swung his knife through the air. The blood coating it dripped off in heavy splatters.
'Twelve down first. If there are six teams total, that makes about seventy I can take out.'
That kind of loss would be catastrophic for the Korean Black Cross Society. They wouldn't be able to operate properly for at least a year.
"……."
Ki Han-jun, the vampire hunter serving as the Korean Black Cross Society's combat chief, fell silent.
Ten minutes.
In a mere ten minutes, the vampire hunters had suffered near-total annihilation.
Six teams. Seventy-two deployed on the passenger ship, and now the survivors were just him and five others.
Three hunters including himself who had stayed behind for command purposes, plus three survivors on the ship.
The vampire hunters had suffered a crushing defeat.
'We misjudged from the very start.'
Red Light was on another level entirely.
Stronger than any progenitor vampire they'd faced so far. He wielded tricky abilities and exploited them to the fullest, acting in the most infuriating ways possible.
His machine manipulation ability was an absurdly overpowered superpower in this modern age.
'...He's a mutant even among progenitors. He can turn transparent too.'
They'd learned from the surviving vampire hunters' testimonies that his body could become invisible. Red Light possessed two superpowers.
A progenitor with two abilities. It was an unprecedented horror.
'...Maybe the Red Light we're facing now is a different person from the one before.'
It was the same speculation as always.
That Red Light might not be one person, but many. The clown mask hiding his face was the basis for that theory. Ki Han-jun wanted to believe it.
'Whatever the truth... we're finished.'
He squeezed his eyes shut.
Sixty-nine dead.
Excuses like "he was stronger than expected" wouldn't cut it. They had died because of his stupidity and incompetent orders.
Thinking of them, Ki Han-jun couldn't picture himself with a future. Most of them had been his students, his disciples.
'I'll go out there myself. At the very least, I'll take one of Red Light's arms.'
He knew the odds were nonexistent. But he couldn't back down here. If he did, he felt like he'd really put a gun to his own head and pull the trigger.
'Better to die fighting Red Light.'
Yet Ki Han-jun couldn't move.
Red Light's voice echoed from his radio.
The atmosphere at Black Cross Society headquarters was at rock bottom.
They were receiving real-time field reports. And they'd just gotten word that sixty-nine vampire hunters had fallen.
It was a clear-cut defeat for the vampire hunters.
'Lucky! Lucky! Lucky!!'
Choi Sun-mi, seated at her desk in the Korean Black Cross Society's office, clamped her hands over her mouth. She looked like a stunned beauty shocked speechless by the tragedy—but in truth, she was stifling the laugh bubbling up uncontrollably.
'Ah! Yu-jin-nim...!'
Thinking of Yu-jin, Choi Sun-mi rubbed her thighs together. Hidden under the desk, pantyhose clung to her lower body—no panties. Ever since losing her virginity on his orders, she lived that way always.
Her pussy twitched. The hot, wet folds ached desperately for their owner. She wanted to feel the pleasure of sex right now.
Her hand drifted slowly under the desk.
"Team leader!"
Choi Sun-mi froze. She glanced at the male employee calling her.
"...What is it?"
"The HQ chief requested army assistance!"
"...Pardon?"
"They're going to sink the passenger ship outright with military help!"
"I see. Any specific orders for us?"
"No, none. Actually, I heard this from a friend in another support department..."
"Stand by at your station for now. There's nothing we can do."
"...Yes, ma'am."
The man left, looking disappointed.
Choi Sun-mi knew he had a crush on her. She ignored him completely. He was smart enough, but from an ordinary family. Besides, her body and heart were ruled by Sung Yu-jin now.
'Gotta contact Yu-jin-nim quick...!'
She fired off a text message in secret.
A reply came back.
Sung Yu-jin was the same as always. Like this whole mess was someone else's problem.
Choi Sun-mi let out an unconscious sigh of relief.
'Of course Yu-jin-nim wouldn't be rattled by something like this.'
She pulled a suitable pen from the holder. A three-color ballpoint—decently thick.
'Yu-jin-nim... Haat.'
I headed up to the captain's quarters and bound the captain and crew with ropes, forcing them to kneel in a line against one wall. When they refused to listen, banking on their numbers, I made an example by killing one. The fierce sea dogs turned into meek puppies before the gun.
Bzzz.
My smartphone vibrated. Checking it, a message from Choi Sun-mi.
'Using the military to sink it? Hmm... Possible? Missiles? Or calling in the navy?'
Honestly, pretty dubious.
'But they might have a shot.'
The vampire hunters were nearly wiped out. Their HQ chief must be seeing red.
This was a world where bomb terrorism happened even in dramas. Sinking the passenger ship wasn't impossible to rule out.
'And the government knows how dangerous I am.'
If I really went wild, it'd be a nightmare for them. They might think eliminating Red Light along with the ship was better for the future.
'I've got the gill breathing skill. Just dive into the sea and I'm good.'
Submerge and swim away. Worst case, buy scuba gear from the real world. With spare illustrator points, escaping the ship was a piece of cake.
'But that'd be too boring.'
I pulled two drones from my inventory. Both from the Code: XTK world.
I launched them into the air. Their rotors spun silently—amazingly quiet. Cameras atop auto-tracked and filmed me.
I manipulated my phone to log into a site. LX Play, with over a million concurrent viewers. An internet streaming platform.
I started the stream. Roughly titled it "Red Light's Happy Halloween!"
'Not enough.'
I hijacked every ongoing personal broadcast on LX Play to relay mine. Forced viewing. It'd pop up on the site main page too.
Even while hacking, I could see the chat without checking my phone—the feed floated in the corner of my vision. Fully controllable, of course.
The chat was pandemonium, naturally.
All sorts of messages flooded in.
The haters were a tiny minority. Most saw me as a dark hero with superpowers. Rescuing those people from the containers earlier had a positive impact.
I picked up the radio. Looted from a vampire hunter. Originally for eavesdropping on their comms.
"Good evening. Special forces captain."
>...Red Light?
>...You here to mock us?
"Kinda. But that's not the point. I hacked some stuff and learned something huge. Your HQ chief's planning to force-sink the ship with me on it?"
>Sink it? What nonsense...!
>Wait—how the hell do you know that?! You hack the chief's phone?!
>You bastard knew everything!
"Cut the bullshit. Tell your chief the ship's heading back to Incheon Port. Ten minutes tops. I don't buy the sinking talk either. Common sense says it's impossible. Even if the military scrambles, takes dozens of minutes to get here. Your big boss is just pissed and talking crap."
I glanced at the chat.
"I get it. People say dumb shit sometimes. But it's annoying? Makes me wonder if I did something wrong."
>Red Light. You're too dangerous.
>Seoul's order and peace are crumbling.
>If sinking one ferry kills you... it's worth it, even if we sink the ship.
>The Seoul you want is full of vam—
"Ah, right. I'm live right now. They say it's the era of one-man streams? Figured I'd try it."
>......What?
"Wow. Never thought the cops were thinking like that. Sink the ferry—and me—with it... But you know about the people on board, right?"
>......
Silence. Smart choice. In this situation, staying quiet beat saying something stupid.
There's a saying for that.
'Silence is golden! Heh.'
I grinned at the hovering camera. Even if he ghosted me, plenty of others would play along.
Hacking let me see the stream feed. A blood-soaked clown grinning creepily. Eerie as hell.
"Hello, everyone! Sorry for the late intro! It's Red Light!"
"Today, I wiped out a Chinese human trafficking syndicate. Slaughtered the bastards who kidnapped our Koreans to sell their organs and turn them into sex slaves."
The chat froze for a moment. Then it exploded again.
"The cops knew nothing about the trafficking ring. Honestly disappointing. But we can't leave them out of a big case like this. So I rampaged from Hongdae all the way here to drag the police along. Pretty thrilling stuff."
"Not superpowers, just parlor tricks. Like magic. Watch—pulling stuff from my smartphone."
I drew a revolver from my inventory.
"Pretty neat, huh?"
I walked slowly toward the captain tied to the wall.
"Cops had no clue about the trafficking. Over fifty people missing, and they were clueless. Gonna sink me with the ferry? But get this—there are twenty kids on this ship. Kidnapped by the traffickers. You planning to kill them too?"
A bit of a fib.
The slip-up came from the Black Cross chief, not the police.
"Must've been a slip. I'll believe that. Still, do your jobs right. Without me, the traffickers would've succeeded. If you'd done yours, I wouldn't have had to step in."
I aimed the camera at the captain. The old man kept his head down, dodging the lens. The crew around him did the same.
"This captain collaborated with the Chinese traffickers. Question for you, Captain. How much did they pay you?"
"……."
No answer. I kicked him in the face.
"……Ugh... Spare me."
"How much? Answer straight, and I'll let you live."
"......Eight hundred million."
"Ah. Eight hundred million. Got it."
I tilted the drone camera toward the ceiling.
Bang!
The revolver barked, and red blood splattered all the way to the ceiling.
"Oops! Damn, finger slipped. Oh well, can't be helped."
I stepped up to the drone camera. My face would fill the screen.
The chat went dead silent. Viewers stunned by what I'd done. A few curses trickled in.
"Stream ends here. Fellow Koreans—evil human traffickers handled by your friendly Red Light. Rest easy and enjoy Halloween! Happy Halloween!"
I cut the broadcast and eyed the crew.
Twelve crew members total.
Some probably took bribes alongside the captain. If I let them live, could the cops even uncover the truth?
I thought it over, then decided to kill them all.
'Guilty go to hell, innocent to heaven. Whatever.'
Gunshots echoed.
For the record, I'm an atheist.