USB Plugged In, You're Paralyzed
“You son of a bitch!”
BAM—!CRASH! CRASH!
Wang Jayeon stomped on the trash can in his house with all his might, kicking it over and over. Even that wasn’t enough to vent his rage, so he smashed every window in the living room.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!”
CRASH!
Only after the glass shattered and blood flowed from his torn knuckles did Wang Jayeon finally collapse onto the floor of the now-ruined living room, weighed down by an anxiety that refused to fade.
“I never thought Ha Namjin would be such a shameless bastard—”
The events from just a few hours ago kept flashing through his mind. The way the entire villa had erupted in murmurs after Ha Namjin’s loud outburst.
“Nam Taegeon and Seo Docheol set fire to the N-Mart?”
“The evidence is with Wang Jayeon?”
“If it’s true, impeachment won’t even begin to cover it.”
All eyes had instantly turned to him. If the police who had been waiting nearby hadn’t rushed into the villa, broken up the party, and hauled Ha Namjin away, who knows what would have happened.
Just thinking about it made his legs go weak. Wang Jayeon turned on his phone and started scrolling through the internet.
His phone kept vibrating nonstop, making it impossible for Wang Jayeon to properly read the reactions. Hundreds of unread messages had already piled up, but he had zero desire to check them.
“That Ha Namjin son of a bitch!”
Wang Jayeon had always looked down on Ha Namjin. Sure, they had clashed repeatedly because of Jang Geunseong, Sama Jun, and the others, but that was it. In Wang Jayeon’s mind, Ha Namjin lived on a completely different stage. The weight of what they carried was entirely different.
Once school was over, they would never cross paths again. That was what he had believed, which was why he had ignored him.
But now Wang Jayeon was painfully realizing that people with nothing to lose truly have no fear. For someone like him who had so much to lose, even getting involved with Ha Namjin was a loss.
“Why the hell did he suddenly show up in my life and start causing trouble?”
Wang Jayeon couldn’t contain his boiling anger. Still, right now, silencing the noisy crowd seemed more urgent than venting his rage.
So he went to the bedroom and asked Jin Eunbyeol, who was fixing her hair.
“Eunbyeol, how did it go? Did you make the call?”
“Yeah. I called Grandfather earlier. He said he’ll take full responsibility for handling public opinion. You don’t have to worry about that side. We’ve fed a lot of money to the newspapers and broadcasters, so it should quiet down soon.”
“Really!?”
When Jin Eunbyeol said “Grandfather,” there was only one person she could mean. If he had stepped in personally, there was truly nothing left to worry about. Wang Jayeon was once again impressed by just how powerful a backer Jin Eunbyeol had.
This must be why people crave high positions.
“But he didn’t say anything specific about Ha Namjin. It seems like he wants you to handle it with your own hands, Jayeon. I think that’s the right approach too.”
“…Me, personally?”
Tension gripped Wang Jayeon once again. To him, Ha Namjin was an unknown variable. The guy completely lacked common sense, so there was no telling which way he would jump.
“What? You don’t want to? Just suing him and dragging it through the courts is boring. Do it yourself, with your own hands. For me. Or what? Don’t tell me you’re scared to teach Ha Namjin a lesson?”
She slid closer and wrapped her arms around his body.
“I’m disappointed.”
In truth, Wang Jayeon was afraid of Jin Eunbyeol too. The fact that he couldn’t predict her either applied to her just as much.
“You know that once the direct election system is abolished and the hereditary succession bill passes, I—as the only adopted daughter—will have the highest priority for inheritance, right? And I promised I would give that position to you.”
Hereditary succession and transfer of the presidency. It sounded insane, but once martial law was declared, the world would change.
“So you need to prove your qualifications to us. To the siblings who looked down on you as the child of a concubine. To Nam Sanho and Ha Namjin, who called you a coward. Show the world you will rule exactly who you are.”
Jin Eunbyeol’s snake-like whisper in his ear made Wang Jayeon’s heart tremble. Proof. His entire life had been a continuous series of proving himself.
“I was planning to deal with that Ha Namjin bastard with my own hands soon anyway. Honestly, I could have handled this incident alone too. Just trust me.”
As expected, Jin Eunbyeol felt far more terrifying and impressive to Wang Jayeon than Ha Namjin. After all, she had an absolutely enormous backer.
“You really are the best, Jayeon.”
She smiled beautifully.
Though to Wang Jayeon’s eyes, it didn’t look like a smile at all.
“Oh, right! You know that girl at your school named Baek Yeoul, right?”
###
The detention center was cozier than he had expected. It was a bit cramped and stuffy, but having solid walls and a ceiling made it a clear upgrade from the shack he used to live in. If the world ends again, maybe he should use a prison as a base.
“Are you out of your mind? Do you have a death wish?”
“Why the hell would you do something like that! Who put you up to it? Who?!”
The only downside was the noisy cops who kept swarming him and barking questions. Why were they so damn curious about everything?
About an hour later, a familiar face approached and spoke to the officers.
“I’m Section Chief Kim Jangdong from the Management Agency. I’d like to take Ha Namjin into our custody. Is that alright? We have an important witness interview scheduled.”
“What business does the Management Agency have with our work?”
“Do you know how many of our guys got their balls smashed trying to catch that bastard? And now you want to just take him?”
“Hey! Shut up, all of you! Ahem. Section Chief, I’m Chief Kim Cheolgwan. You wish to take Ha Namjin with you?”
“Ha Namjin’s custody has been transferred to our Management Agency.”
CLANK.CREEEAK—
The iron door opened. When he stepped outside the police station, the world was already dark.
Inside the black car speeding down the road, Section Chief Kim Jangdong spoke to him.
“Namjin, you’re the kind of guy who could live as comfortably as he wants. Why do you keep throwing yourself into danger like this? Is it because of your parents? If you’re after revenge, stop. You’ll only get hurt.”
“Revenge? It’s not that. I can barely even remember my parents’ voices anymore.”
“If it’s not revenge, then what is it?”
Both Seo Gaeul and Section Chief Kim Jangdong seemed to think he was driven by some dark vendetta or grand cause, but they were all wrong.
“Chief, I’m a much simpler guy than I look. Just having food in the fridge that I can eat tomorrow makes me happy. If the girl I like smiles at me, I can power through the whole day.”
All he wanted was to get malang-malang promised to him three times from Seo Gaeul. That was it.
Damn it! What the hell even is malang-malang anyway?! It keeps making my body heat up!
VROOOOM—
The smooth-riding sedan glided down the road and soon arrived at his house.
“Namjin, I know you’ve got a hell of a temper, but try to behave yourself for a while. I’m saying this for your own good, so listen carefully.”
“It’s fine. I’m a Special Management Target, aren’t I? That means I’m being monitored.”
When the world had been destroyed, was it really a coincidence that Section Chief Kim Jangdong had given him all those requests? Not at all. In truth, he had been monitoring him even in that ruined world. He still was.
Of course, Kim Jangdong played dumb.
“Special what? Anyway, you might be fine, but cleaning up after you is going to kill me. Of all people, you had to pick a fight with Jin Eunbyeol? Sigh, just do whatever you want.”
He had always done whatever he wanted just fine.
After Kim Jangdong left, he returned home.
“……”
But there was a problem. The “Intruder Warning Stick” he had propped against the front gate was knocked over inward. That meant someone had entered. He had set it up so that opening the gate would knock it down.
A burglar? This is why location matters. This neighborhood is nice in every way except the terrible security. There are way too many criminals. Doesn’t a terrifying female high school kidnapper live around here too?
Thinking that, he entered his room and found someone sitting on the living room sofa. It was a man with long hair wearing a leather jacket. The face was familiar, but what stood out was that he was petting Ing-ing.
Stroke stroke stroke stroke stroke—
That crazy slime bastard! Letting just anyone into the house!
He pretended to be completely calm and asked casually.
“Didn’t we meet at the Seonam Group building last time?”
It was the man he had encountered in front of the elevator when he first met Chairman Seo Docheol. The one who had healed his broken leg. He never expected to meet him again like this.
“Ha Namjin, it’s nice to see you again. I am Gu Sejun.”
Gu Sejun—the leader of the illegal Awakened group known as the Villainers? He was a comrade of the Yeomra and Pinocchio that he had fought.
“We don’t have much time, so I’ll be direct. Join us. Our goals align. We both seek to destroy the old order and welcome the new.”
“I don’t work with terrorists. It usually ends badly.”
“But today you created an opponent that’s too difficult to handle alone. Jin Eunbyeol. Or more precisely, the Concept dwelling inside that woman. Even we struggle against that thing.”
He had turned a Concept into an enemy—.
When he felt the phrasing was odd, the long-haired man Gu Sejun kindly added an explanation.
“The Concept an Awakened possesses isn’t just power. It has a will, like a living creature. And that will sometimes devours the person. In other words, they get consumed by their own Concept.”
Consumed by one’s Concept—.
A few things came to mind. Gu Sejun spoke as if he had read his thoughts.
“Originally they were called ‘Concept Humans’ because they were eaten by their Concept, but that sounded too positive. So we renamed them. Main (). Jin Eunbyeol is one of those Mains.”
Jin Eunbyeol?
The Mains he had met recently had all been like erupting volcanoes they couldn’t control—explosive existences that burned out and died quickly because they couldn’t handle their own power. But Jin Eunbyeol hadn’t felt like that, had she?
“The Concept inside her is especially malicious. But fortunately, the clearer a Concept’s will is, the clearer its weakness becomes. This is Jin Eunbyeol’s weakness.”
He held out a small plastic object. It was a USB.
“How is this USB her weakness? If I plug it into some part of her body, she can’t move?”
Was there even a place on Jin Eunbyeol’s body to plug in a USB?
When he looked up, Gu Sejun was already gone. What a strange man.
“Gu Sejun, leader of a terrorist group. Ing-ing, what do you think of him?”
━Ing-ing-ya-ing.
“Yeah, no good person walks into someone’s house with their shoes on. But didn’t you open the door for him? You crazy slime bastard!”
━Grrrr…!
Since he had nothing better to do, he plugged the USB into his computer. Inside, he found a single video file.
6.mkv
Click—