Subjugating on Broadcast (32)
Won-seon had taken a heavy blow, but she'd pulled through in the end. Gyeo-wool's read put the opposing king on piece number 1, and Dong-hyun's attack was already closing on it. Yoon Jin-ju looked faintly stunned — she clearly hadn't imagined Sang-hoon would try a stunt like that and lose to Won-seon.
Dong-hyun immediately shifted his number 5 one square to the right, bringing it into contact with both the opponent's 7 and 5 at once. Whichever piece he faced, a sensory contest was coming.
"Piece number 5 has moved into contact with two opposing pieces. Which will you contest first?"
"Number 5."
"Number 5 selected. Ahn Jin-woo team's piece 5 will face Yoon Jin-ju team's piece 5 in a sensory contest. Both players, please proceed to Room 2."
The shifty-looking man who'd beaten Lee Yu-rim headed for Room 2. Two shooting lanes waited inside, and at the staffer's direction Dong-hyun took the left.
Lucky break.
He was glad he'd drawn the left lane. Last time, he'd shot from the right. He was about to face the number 5 and number 7 opponents back-to-back in sensory contests, and the number 6 guarding the king would be more of the same. His best guess was that either 7 or 6 was Yoon Jin-ju herself. He'd heard she was a detective — of course she'd be good with a pistol. Even so, nobody shot well with a gun they'd never handled. Every weapon zeroed differently. He needed to put rounds through the left-lane pistol before he met her, just to find his own zero. And now, before facing Jin-ju, he had the left-hand gun.
Yoon Jin-ju's team shot first from the right lane. The shifty man raised the pistol. His form looked sloppy to Dong-hyun's eye. Sure enough, the round punched into the 6-ring. At twenty-five meters, a 6 wasn't a terrible score.
Then it was Dong-hyun's turn. He read the hold exactly, settled the sights on the dead center of the target, and fired.
Bang!
A 7. High and left of where he'd aimed.
After that, it was easy. Last time the gun had printed low-right, so he'd held high-left. This time he just needed to hold low-right. He walked the offset in, shot by shot, and by the fourth round he had a 10. From there he put five more 10s on the target, dead clean.
Dong-hyun's focus was exceptional, and he understood shooting. The other man, by contrast, never found a rhythm from first shot to last and went down without a fight. At Dong-hyun's victory, the man filed off to the elimination seats.
Dong-hyun started to leave as well, but a staffer stepped into his path.
"Another sensory contest will begin immediately. Please wait a moment."
Meaning the number 7 opponent was coming here. The door to Room 2 opened — and it wasn't Yoon Jin-ju who walked in. Dong-hyun's opponent was a man who'd been on Jin-ju's team from the start. Compact, solidly built. Almost certainly the one she trusted most.
The man spoke the moment he stepped inside.
"Yoon Jin-ju may trust you. I don't."
"That so? After watching her today, I'm the one having trouble trusting her."
"Kh—"
The man looked like he'd been stabbed where it hurt. There was something almost resentful in his face.
This time Dong-hyun was assigned the right lane, apparently at random by the staff. The right lane always shot first.
Bang!
Dong-hyun's first score was a 10. He'd already adapted to the right-hand pistol, so putting rounds on target was no trouble. Jin-ju's teammate put up a fight, but Dong-hyun won in the end. The man tried to walk his zero in gradually — he just couldn't catch a score that had started at 10.
"Ahn Jin-woo's team is victorious. The loser will proceed to the elimination seats."
Dong-hyun returned to the table. It was Yoon Jin-ju's turn to move.
"This isn't looking good for us... One way or another, I'll have to beat you myself."
Only her 3, 6, and 1 remained. She chose to push the 6 forward.
"I'm piece number 6. Let's have a proper match."
She rose as she said it and headed for Room 2. With Jin-ju already moving, the staffer had nothing left to announce.
Dong-hyun followed her, talking as they walked.
"You want to win this game that badly?"
"Of course I do."
"You said you wanted to cooperate. What does it matter which of us wins?"
Jin-ju's steps stopped cold.
"You're right. But... ha. Yeah. I guess I still don't trust you completely."
"Your choice put Choo So-yeon and Lee Won-seon through hell. Lee Sang-hoon is dead. I wouldn't call that a good call."
He said it to rattle her.
"I see..."
Whether the words landed or not, she went abruptly quiet. The Yoon Jin-ju he knew had always been the talkative type.
Inside Room 2, the lanes were assigned at random again. Dong-hyun drew the left. Jin-ju would shoot first.
She took the pistol in both hands and settled on the target. The stance was excellent — right thumb locked precisely beneath her right eye, elbow tucked to her ribs to kill the recoil. She held the gun lightly rather than crushing it, her trigger finger resting so softly it was impossible to tell when the shot would break. Her shoulders, which had been rising and falling, went still the instant she held her breath. Both knees were slightly bent, planting her even more solidly.
Bang!
A 9. A 9 on the first round was outstanding — especially with a gun she'd never touched.
Dong-hyun swallowed without meaning to.
Even if I lose here, the rest of the team can still take this.
The other side had only two pieces left besides the king. His own team still had five. If he just held Jin-ju and kept advancing, the win wasn't hard. And Han Gyeo-wool was still sitting on piece 1 — send Gyeo-wool after Jin-ju's 6, and they could take her in an intelligence game.
No. I have to win. I can't lose to Yoon Jin-ju even once. Not if I'm going to make her submit.
He crushed the flicker of weakness and wrapped his hand around the pistol. He held low-right and fired, trying to match Jin-ju's stance as closely as he could — keeping his own point of aim, taking whatever he could steal from hers.
Bang!
A 10.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The two of them kept shooting. After that opening 9, Jin-ju put a 10 on every remaining target — barely a whisper off the plus-sign dead center. Whatever Dong-hyun's words had done to her, they hadn't touched her shooting.
But the same was true of him. After that first 10, he never missed. Every round a 10.
Then the last shot came around. They were separated by a single point. Jin-ju raised the pistol first. Her eyes didn't flicker.
Bang!
Another 10, of course.
Now it was Dong-hyun. A 10 would win it. A 9 would send them into a shoot-off, and in a shoot-off the odds favored her. He shot well — just not as well as Yoon Jin-ju.
"Hoo..."
He drew a deep breath, let out a third of it, held, and eased the trigger back.
Bang!
His eyes went to the screen. The last round had kissed the 10-ring — barely, but it had.
"Hahh..."
"Victory to Ahn Jin-woo's team. However, as a team leader, participant Yoon Jin-ju will return to the table rather than the elimination seats and continue the game."
Being the leader, she apparently didn't go to the elimination seats. She still had to move the pieces.
"I... lost. And I was so sure about pistol shooting, too."
She looked disappointed, but underneath it she felt something like relief. The thought had been sitting in her the whole time — that Choo So-yeon, Lee Won-seon, and Lee Sang-hoon might not have had to die. She'd done what she had to. You couldn't afford to lose this game. The guilt had stayed anyway.
She went back to the table and looked at the staffer.
With nothing left but piece number 3, there was no path to a win.
Yoon Jin-ju's team has surrendered. Victory goes to Ahn Jin-woo's team.
The slave designation ceremony will begin shortly.
With the staffer's declaration, Dong-hyun's semifinal was over.