Chapter 35
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: The Fastest Persuasion Method (3)
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‘One.’
Even as Kang Sang-chul was flung to the ground, four fists and feet were flying toward Min-jun from behind, where no dirt had been thrown.
Paang—
They hadn’t completely neglected raising their stats, as the sound cutting through the air was quite sharp.
But Min-jun slipped into one man’s guard with just a few steps, grabbed him by the collar, and used him as a shield.
“Euk!”
‘Two.’
As the man took a kick to the stomach from his comrade and doubled over, Min-jun’s fist shot out, twisting the jaw of the ponytail woman who had delivered the kick.
‘Three.’
With three down in one breath, the remaining fourteen hesitated for a moment.
But only for a moment. The goateed man, who seemed the most senior among them, shouted to rile up the other detectives.
“Fuck! Are the violent crimes detectives going to let a single civilian humiliate us like this?! Get it together! Bite his legs if you have to!!”
With his bellow, the expressions of the others twisted, and the air around them boiled over.
They had lashed out in a fit of anger, unashamed of their embarrassment, but now that things had come this far, it was do or die for them.
“…”
Unlike at the start, they circled Min-jun with a changed mindset, ready to pounce and tear into him at the slightest opening.
“Rush him all at once!”
Like a pack of wolves, they charged from all directions at the goateed man’s command.
Some aimed for his arms, some his waist, some his legs with tackles.
It was a coordinated assault that left no apparent escape, and if Min-jun got grabbed by even one, it would turn into a grueling dogfight from there.
Of course, even if he took their attacks head-on, he wouldn’t get a single bruise, but winning like that wouldn’t create the picture he wanted.
Min-jun wanted to steer the fight away from a simple stat level brawl while creating an overwhelming situation.
‘In a situation like this, offense is the only way.’
He recalled the first time at Jamsil Intersection, fighting the Apostles in a chaotic melee.
Back then, he had survived by aggressively countering the reckless chargers.
Moreover, these were humans, not bugs, so he could end this far quicker than a fight with Apostles.
Having sorted his thoughts, Min-jun launched himself at the burliest-looking man among those charging him. It looked reckless, like a wolf charging a bear.
Kudangtangtang—!
By lowering his body and targeting the weight-center weakness in his tackle, he nullified the size difference, and the two tangled, rolling wildly on the ground.
Escaping the encirclement like that, Min-jun struck the man’s liver and intestines short and sharp the moment he sucked in a breath.
“Keheuk—! Euk. Euk.”
It was a pity to see the gym-rat-looking uncle’s face turn pale as he gasped for air.
Thanks to that, Min-jun left the gym uncle behind and charged at the goatee who had been commanding from the rear.
As if his detective experience wasn’t for nothing, the goatee anticipated Min-jun breaking the encirclement and swung a hairy fist.
Sheeeek—
‘This ends it.’
A perfect right-hand counter timed to Min-jun’s charge. Backed by strength and speed far beyond pre-apocalypse levels.
The once-boxer goatee was certain of his victory.
From experience, he knew this move. This situation—everything was perfect.
Except for one thing.
Min-jun’s body and senses, which could be said to have transcended humanity, operated in ranges that a detective’s honed instincts couldn’t predict.
‘…?!’
Instead, Min-jun sidestepped, shifting his weight to his front foot. The goatee’s fist grazed Min-jun’s cheek and passed.
‘What? How did he—’
Paaang—!
Before the goatee could finish the thought, his mind went white.
A long hook from Min-jun, who had dodged sideways, slammed into the man’s jaw.
It wasn’t even a hard hit. Just a light strike to rattle the skull at the precise spot.
Thud.
That alone knocked the goatee detective unconscious; his eyes glazed over as he crumpled pathetically.
“…”
Silence fell over the area.
In just over thirty seconds, five were out of the fight.
And somehow, he had picked out the four ‘team leaders’ except for one.
Losing their leader completely broke the team’s spirit.
‘A demon…’
Min-jun was faster and stronger than them by an incomparable margin.
Moreover… even before the apocalypse, as cops who dealt with thugs and gangsters daily, they could tell at a glance.
His movements looked untrained and rough, but he was a natural at combat.
In the past, subduing guys like that required modern weapons… but with stat levels now, even those wouldn’t work.
In the quiet where everyone was lost in their own thoughts, Min-jun spoke up.
“If you’re thinking of saying something about stat levels, I’ll show you ahead of time…”
Min-jun picked up a chunk of asphalt from the ground and crushed it in his grip, turning it to black ash that scattered.
The team members’ faces darkened like the ash at the sight.
“I held back quite a bit while dealing with you.”
Only then did Min-jun shake out his hand with a refreshed expression and open his mouth.
“So, I win, right?”
* * *
Songpa Police Station, second-floor break room.
In the space where a sofa had been simply converted into a makeshift infirmary, four bandaged men and women sat.
Among them, Kang Sang-chul—whose long legs stuck out beyond the sofa bed due to his height—had been deep in solitary thought since earlier.
‘What’s his angle?’
He had lost the bet. Miserably, without even landing a hand.
If that young man had been ruthless, they all would have had to lay down their lives right there—and he felt that bone-deep.
So Kang Sang-chul was prepared to accept any demand, whether unconditional obedience or handing over survival time.
He didn’t know what the others thought, but even if it was a bit humiliating, being under such a strong figure would make his comrades safer.
‘But.’
When they came to their senses shortly after, the demand from his mouth was unexpected.
‘I have no intention of giving you orders. Even if a situation arises where I must, Uncle Dong-gil here will handle it well. I just want to become one of you. Your first impression of me might not be great, but honestly, my first impression of you all is pretty good.’
The young man named Min-jun, tailing off that it seemed they were finally listening, continued by praising them.
Not with the rough, menacing aura from before the fight, but with a smile that seemed to embrace them all.
‘In a world like this, people who can devote themselves to others can’t be bad at heart, right?’
Kang Sang-chul replayed Min-jun’s words and reflected on himself.
He had never thought of his actions as devotion or sacrifice—noble deeds like that.
As someone who had made policing his profession, he saw it as his given duty, so he just kept doing it.
There was no reason to change the principles he’d upheld for over a decade just because the world ended. That’s why he stayed at the station even on apocalypse day…
So he wasn’t in the ‘bad person’ category, but he wasn’t in the frame of ‘good person’ that the young man described either.
In short, he was just average.
But that young man called them good. And said he was looking for people like that.
‘I need a home. A place with decent people that can heal my heart, not my body. Truth be told, I’ve lived my whole life without a place to rest my heart. Or rather, I lacked the courage to seek it out and act. Looking back, it was a pretty barren life.’
‘…’
‘But ironically, after the apocalypse hit, meeting So-hee and Uncle Dong-gil made me realize. Ah, I have to reach out first.’
The young man’s words were quiet and low, yet they carried an overwhelming presence.
Before they knew it, they were listening intently. Maybe because they felt the sincerity in his words?
‘Be my friends. Of course, we can’t get close right away… For now, just welcome me as one of your own. That’s more than enough. Let me reintroduce myself first… Nice to meet you all.’
‘Friends?’
Not subordinates, but friends.
When he first heard it, Sang-chul thought Min-jun’s words were absurd.
Becoming friends with them meant becoming comrades-in-arms, which meant entering the police hierarchy directly as a member of the organization.
‘Why take the hard road when the easy one’s open?’
There had to be some scheme, but he couldn’t pinpoint it.
‘Does he think we’ll be so impressed we’ll serve him anyway?’
“…?!”
And at that moment, when Sang-chul’s thoughts reached there.
He could imagine Min-jun’s scheme in various ways.
‘In a world where exams and promotions are gone, if we start discussing the status to give this young man Min-jun…’
He’d surely end up as something close to their superior. In this world, strength was status.
‘Borrow the police name and naturally place us under him?’
If so, he was more cunning and tricky than Sang-chul thought.
‘Or… as ridiculous as it sounds.’
What if his actions were truly sincere?
No matter how he turned it, there was this nagging incomprehensibility.
Actually, if that young man’s words were filled with pure sincerity, all his doubts would neatly resolve.
Kang Sang-chul himself thought the possibility was very low.
But he was even considering this hypothesis because, having seen the man’s actions, he didn’t seem like the same breed as those damn bastards who killed his subordinates.
And because Sung Dong-gil, who strongly supported the man, wouldn’t bring in someone useless— that thought lingered in the back of his mind.
‘What the hell is his angle?’
For Sang-chul, the young man’s intentions remained utterly inscrutable.