Chapter 295: Rage-13 (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 295: Rage-13 (4)
I crouched in front of the guy, whose head was the only thing sticking out of the solid concrete, and continued my questioning.
“What are the drug’s effects?”
“Well… I don’t know the full details. Only that physical abilities fluctuate depending on emotional changes…”
“…It changes depending on your emotions?”
“Yes, that’s what I heard.”
It sounded absurd, but maybe it wasn’t entirely baseless.
Kim Jeong-hun had gone through intense emotional shifts while fighting me.
Anger, rage, extreme rage.
Each time his fury toward me deepened, his body underwent a significant transformation.
In the end, he’d unleashed a power so immense that his own body couldn’t handle it.
“Rage-13…”
Even the pill’s name contained the English word “Rage.”
That meant the angrier you got, the stronger you became.
His eyes darted around, nervously watching my expression. I asked him again.
“What are the side effects?”
“Uh… they said to be careful when selling it because if you keep taking the drug, it gets harder and harder to control your emotions.”
Since it was a narcotic, addiction was a given.
And it getting harder to control your emotions… that meant a murder could happen over a simple bumped shoulder.
What would happen if hundreds, or even thousands, of people with such rage issues were running around South Korea?
“Ugh, how horrible.”
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
“Huh? What is…”
“I said your face is hideous, you bastard.”
“……”
“Wipe that look off your face if you don’t want to die.”
“Hehe, my face isn’t much to look at, is it?”
Desperate to live, the guy even took my forced provocation in stride.
“Who’s the one who supplied you with the drugs to sell?”
“Well… I got them from a guy named Yong-seok. He’s part of the Axe Gang.”
Yong-seok of the Axe Gang…
Sounded like he wasn’t the top dog.
“He’s not the one in charge, is he?”
“From what I hear, the entire organization has its hands in the drug business…?”
“So the gangsters are trying to change their line of business…”
Gangsters and drug dealers.
Both were trash you shouldn’t associate with, but the latter probably made more money.
Of course, the risks were higher, but it’s not like lowlifes who’ve already hit rock bottom would care about that.
“Yong-seok’s contact info?”
“It’s saved on my smartphone…”
Which meant it was buried in the ground with him.
Well, that worked out perfectly.
I used the ‘Dig’ spell again to excavate the ground.
Rumble!
“Get out.”
“Yessir.”
His body must have been packed tightly in the dense earth, because he crawled out with clumsy, awkward movements.
“Ugh… I thought I was going to die.”
He collapsed on the ground and started frantically rubbing his arms and legs. I spoke to him.
“Call that Yong-seok guy, or whatever his name is, and tell him you want to meet.”
“Uh… what should I say?”
“Just tell him you sold all the drugs you had and need more.”
“Aha.”
Working with an idiot is so damn hard.
The guy took out his smartphone, made a call, and immediately started talking to someone.
“Hey, Yong-seok, it’s me. Can I get some more of the stuff? Yeah, yeah, I sold everything you gave me last time. How’d I sell it all so fast…? Well, I hooked a real sucker. He’s going crazy, begging for more.”
He handled the conversation more skillfully than I expected.
One thing was clear: he and this Yong-seok guy weren’t close.
To save his own skin, he was lying through his teeth as smoothly as if his tongue were coated in butter.
“Yeah, I know the place. Where we always meet. Right, yeah, yeah. I’m leaving right now, so it’ll take me about… thirty, forty minutes. Nah, it’s fine. I’ll just get there first and wait. Okay, yup.”
The call ended after about three minutes.
The guy lowered his smartphone and looked up at me.
“We agreed to meet at a bar we frequent. It’s about a thirty-minute drive from here, but he said it’ll take him about an hour…”
An hour was nothing.
“Lead the way.”
“Yes…”
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The friend named Yong-seok he introduced me to looked like the textbook definition of a gangster.
A buzz cut, a menacing face, and a thick body full of what could be either muscle or fat, forcibly stuffed into a tight-fitting suit.
Dealing with him was surprisingly difficult.
“Ugh, he’s so big, I had to dig a bigger hole.”
Because of his size, I had to dig a much larger hole, and breaking through the concrete to do it drained a ton of my mana.
The drug dealer, buried next to the buzz-cut head that was sticking out of the ground, asked me in an aggrieved tone.
“Hey, sir. Why me too…?”
“……?”
What was this guy talking about?
“Is there any reason I shouldn’t bury you?”
“…Fuck, no, there isn’t.”
“Right. That’s why you’re buried.”
I had no more business with him, so I ignored him.
I reviewed the conversation I’d had with Yong-seok, who was now docile with two black eyes.
“So… your entire Axe Gang has gotten into the drug trade.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Where did you get the drugs?”
“That… our boss brought them, so I don’t really know…”
“Ah, I see.”
This was just one thing after another…
“Where’s your gang’s office?”
“It’s… not far from here. Go straight at that intersection, then take a left…”
“Yeah, yeah. I know the place.”
He kindly gave me directions to his gang’s office.
How great would it be if everyone in the world were like these guys.
I could probably achieve world peace with just a little re-education.
What a shame.
“I think I’ve told you everything I know… You’re going to let me go now, right?”
Yong-seok asked me with a cute voice that didn’t match his thuggish face.
“Yeah, I think I’m done with you guys.”
Now that I knew where their office was, all I had to do was crush the head honcho.
The road was narrow anyway. I should just leave these two here.
“Well… it’s time for us to part ways.”
I took a plastic bag containing the red pills and various other drugs from my pocket and stuck it to their foreheads.
The guy looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Uh, sir? Why the bag of drugs on my forehead…?”
“This? If I stick it here, it’ll be easy to see, won’t it?”
After making sure the bag was securely attached, I opened my smartphone and called 112.
“Yes, thank you for your service. I’m in front of the ○○ Bar. I’ve caught some guys selling drugs in the alley next to it. I’ve secured the evidence, so come and get them. Yes, that’s all.”
I said what I needed to and hung up, then crouched down to say a final goodbye to my dear friends.
“Guys. The police will be here to pick you up soon.”
Talking to them, I’d come to a realization.
I realized just how kind and naive these kids were.
Or maybe not.
Maybe it was just that every other criminal I’d met so far deserved to be torn to shreds, so these guys seemed nice in comparison.
Whatever. They seemed nice to me.
“I’ll make sure to put in a good word for you, so your sentences won’t be reduced no matter what kind of bullshit you pull. Let’s live clean lives this time and get out. Then you can start over as new men. Got it?”
“……”
“……”
Ignoring the two guys who were staring up at me with expressions that said, What the hell is wrong with this guy?, I forced myself to walk away.
I prayed earnestly in my heart.
Please, become new men.
Or else you’ll die by my hand.
* * *
Life is always a series of choices.
And opportunity is hidden somewhere among them.
It was a motto he lived by, a man with little education and boundless ignorance.
‘This is an opportunity.’
It had already been fifteen years since he started making a living with his fists.
A new opportunity had come his way.
It was more dangerous than his current life, but it was a chance to earn an amount of money that couldn’t even be compared to the protection money they extorted from prime businesses in Gangnam.
Selling a new kind of narcotic.
It was an incredibly risky venture, but he accepted it without a moment’s hesitation.
‘A gangster or a drug dealer, what’s the difference?’
His life had already hit rock bottom.
His hope was to make a killing on one big score, then run off to the countryside or overseas and live in luxury. Wouldn’t that be better?
And things were, in fact, going well.
He had recruited dealers who frequented the famous clubs in Gangnam, slowly releasing samples to secure a customer base. All that was left was for the finished product to arrive, so he could capture the hearts of his lovely customers and rake in the cash.
‘That’s how it was supposed to go.’
But as they say, disaster strikes suddenly, without any warning.
“Kuaargh!”
“Guhk!”
One punch, one man.
That was exactly what the man approaching him was like, knocking down his men one by one.
His face looked familiar.
‘Where have I seen him before?’
As he tried to calm his pounding heart and wracked his brain,
“Keok…”
The man—no, the grim reaper—finally took down his enforcer with a single blow, came right up to his face, and asked.
“You’re Park Cheol-hwan, the boss of the Axe Gang, right?”
They say a gangster lives and dies by his pride.
He fought back the urge to shrink in fear, forced his body to relax, and replied with a composed expression.
“That’s right, I’m Park Cheol-hwan. Which organization sent you?”
An organization.
The only organization the man, Kim Do-jin, currently belonged to was…
“Uh… the Waving the License club from Korea University?”
“……”
That was the only one.