Chapter 142. Assault Report
Chapter 142. Assault Report
I walked toward the men who had been spewing obscenities about Laila.
A hulking frame, easily over 190 cm. A dark mask.
That alone was enough to freeze them with fear.
"Wh-what the hell are you!?"
The words they had spat out.
That hadn't been a simple insult.
They had appraised Laila like cheap goods, using filthy, vulgar language.
"Uh... a-aren't you gonna back off?"
The laughter had vanished from their faces. Now they were panicking.
─ Thwump!
I reached out, snagged one of them by the collar, and hoisted him into the air.
"Krgk...!"
As my fist tightened around his throat, he flailed, gasping for air.
"Y-you... g-get your hand off...!"
At that moment, my gaze flicked somewhere.
A dark gap between two buildings.
A deep crevice where no light could reach.
"Perfect."
My actions were swift.
Without causing a commotion, I moved immediately.
I gauged the distance, lifted them one by one, and hurled them into that space.
─ Crash! Bang!
The sound of bodies slamming into air conditioner units and food waste bins.
One of them had probably cracked a rib—air leaked from his wheezing breaths.
Another must have broken his arm on impact, whimpering as he clutched it.
"Ggrrhh...!"
I merely exhaled a breath.
Without a single word, I brushed off my clothes and lifted my head.
The men were already sprawled across the ground.
No screams echoed—only the sound of strangled coughing.
Yet even then, one of them, barely propping up his staggering body, ground his teeth and shouted.
"Y-you're a... a Hunter, right? You son of a bitch!"
"?"
The veins in his neck were bulging as he yelled at me, his eyes bloodshot.
"Do you have any idea what happens... when a Hunter pulls this shit against civilians!?"
His trembling hand rummaged through his pocket.
The moment his fingers closed around his phone, he started shrieking and jabbing at the screen.
"Y-you're dead... don't even dream of settling...! Do you know who my father is?"
"Why? Your mom didn't tell you?"
Their bravado as they pulled out their phones.
I snatched every single one of them away.
─ Crack... Snap...
I tore through the solid smartphones with my bare fingers.
The screens shattered, the circuits crumpled and splintered into pieces.
"It looked like you have no eyes to see with, and now you have no phones either."
Silence.
"Hurk...!"
Overwhelmed by sheer terror, one of them collapsed, dry-heaving. A thick stream of yellow liquid soaked through his pants.
Another was already rubbing his forehead against the ground, face smeared with tears and snot.
"P-please spare me... I-I won't do it again... really... please..."
"I don't kill people carelessly."
But you're going to wish you were dead.
---
At a police station somewhere.
Officers on night duty sat with bored expressions.
"...Yes? An assault report?"
─ click.
The officer who hung up the phone set down the receiver and stared wordlessly at the monitor.
"What's going on that's got you looking so serious?"
A senior detective from the next seat approached, holding a cup of coffee, and asked.
The officer who had taken the call calmly explained the situation.
"...If they've been hospitalized, it doesn't sound like a simple assault... and all of them?"
"Yes, they've been transported to the hospital."
"Huh... did they get jumped by a whole gang?"
They exchanged glances for a moment and immediately headed for the hospital.
Their conversation didn't stop even inside the police car on the way there.
"First, check the nearby CCTV locations... and if there are any witnesses, question them."
"Yes, sir."
By the time they arrived at the hospital, the hallway was thick with tension and anxiety.
─ Knock knock.
When they opened the door to the hospital room, people who appeared to be the parents were already pacing around, and the attending physician was waiting with a chart.
"These are the guardians."
At the nurse's words, the officers bowed their heads in greeting.
"Do you happen to know what happened?"
When the officer asked, one of the fathers shook his head.
"I don't know... they said they were going out drinking with friends... and then they were brought in like this..."
The detectives calmly organized the situation and addressed the doctor.
"What is the extent of the victims' injuries?"
At that, the doctor adjusted his glasses and shook his head, looking rather surprised himself.
"That's the thing. It's the opposite."
"Pardon?"
"There are no wounds at all."
The doctor spoke with a grave expression.
"No fractures, of course, and no external signs of bruising. They are perfectly fine—not so much as a single bruise from a fall. The CT scans and MRIs all came back normal."
"Wait... hold on a moment..."
The detective's brow furrowed.
It completely defied common sense.
"The victims were hospitalized at the same time, an assault was reported... but there isn't a single wound?"
"To be precise, they are all displaying extreme fear responses. It appears they are suffering from temporary cognitive impairment due to stress-induced shock. They flinch and squeeze their eyes shut at the slightest stimulus, and they can't even speak properly."
"...What on earth?"
"Th-then, who was the initial reporter?"
The junior officer standing next to the detective, who was rubbing his forehead and shaking his head, asked a question.
"The reporter was a university student from nearby. He said he ducked into an alley to smoke a cigarette and found people collapsed there, so he called it in. Their phones had all been destroyed as well."
The officer let out a heavy sigh.
This wasn't a simple assault.
'A random assault? No... if that were the case, a targeted assault...?'
The perpetrator committed the crime in a secluded alley and smashed all the victims' phones.
No matter how he thought about it, it couldn't be anything other than a calculated crime.
"Senior... this is..."
He quietly observed the victims' families, who were failing to conceal their fury.
In this situation, it wasn't appropriate to ask, 'had your son done anything to make enemies anywhere?'
"I'm definitely going to catch whatever bastard did this...!"
"Just wait... an acquaintance of mine..."
One father slammed his fist on a chair and shouted, while another clutched his phone and muttered quietly.
"..."
The atmosphere was growing increasingly hostile.
"Doctor, when might they be discharged?"
The doctor was silent for a moment, then spoke calmly.
"They can leave right now, medically speaking. There is no physical problem whatsoever. However, the psychological issues will require time."
'Still... I had to ask them...'
At a signal from the senior detective, the doctor and nurses bowed their heads and cleared the room.
Then the junior officer led the victims' mothers outside for a moment.
"There is something... I must ask."
"...What is it?"
"Please tell us everything you know..."
The detective calmly explained the current situation.
Then he let out a breath and asked, enunciating each word carefully.
"Has your son... done anything that might have made someone hold a grudge...?"
─ Slap!
Before he could even finish, a palm flew at his face.
Even in this absurd situation, the detective forcefully suppressed his anger.
'Yeah... if my child were in the hospital, I'd be the same...'
"Are you saying my son did something to make someone resent him and ended up like this?"
A rational conversation was impossible.
He bowed his head, offered a respectful apology, said he would contact them again later, and turned to leave.
"Do you know how much tax I pay...!! If you don't catch him, you'd better think about handing in your badges!!!"
Barely managing to keep a straight face, he stepped out of the hospital room.
Yet the men inside were still fuming, unable to quell their rage.
"Hah... I'll pull some guys loose and find him no matter what..."
"Sir, what are you planning to do when you catch him?"
"I'll have to make the bastard at least a half-cripple to cool my head...!"
In a furious state, he called someone and gave orders.
"I don't care how much it costs! Find him, now!"
---
After the assault incident broke out, Song Hoon was staring at the monitor in his room.
It was packed with relevant data.
[ Guardian Records ]
[ Unknown Criminal History ]
[ Investigation Career Data ]
[ Non-prosecution Decision Records ]
"Seriously... like father, like son."
It was beyond absurd.
Whenever they caused trouble, they shut people up with settlement money.
And there had been controversies about drug use, but those controversies always died down quickly.
"Wait? Laila wasn't their first target?"
Anyone who caught their eye suffered horrible things.
"Seriously, it's beyond imagination?"
A low, heavy voice came through the earphones plugged into his ears.
- Since that incident, a lot of suspicious people have been seen in the area. Store owners nearby say they are stopping students and asking about that alley that day.
"Hmm... are they planning some private sanctions?"
- That is what we suspect... We've already disposed of the nearby CCTV, and if you'd like, we could apply pressure...
"No, there's no need for that. I'll meet them in person."
The end of his words was heavy.
The hard tone that fell flat left no room for compromise or settlement.
And the person on the other end of the line said no more.
The silence itself sounded like an answer.
- ...
The person on the line had probably decided to turn a blind eye.
Even if the victims of the incident were the children of people with some reputation.
It was nothing compared to the value of the Unknown Hunter.