Chapter 143. Am I Toxic Too?
Chapter 143. Am I Toxic Too?
The silence on the other end stretched on.
"Hunter, murder is absolutely forbidden..."
His voice was low, but exceedingly cautious.
The words that followed were even more guarded.
"And if... such a thing were to happen, please inform us immediately."
At his words, the corner of my mouth lifted slightly.
Letting out a small laugh, I replied.
"Don't worry. I'm not some lunatic who kills people over a single wrong word."
It was a joke meant to lighten the serious mood.
Even so, the other party remained silent.
'What on earth was my image like...?'
The person who had called said nothing more.
He only left one short sentence at the end.
"We will handle all necessary measures. Hunter only needs to go find them."
─ Click.
The call ended, and a message arrived immediately.
The address of their current home and the place they worked.
"Seoul, huh?"
I got up at once, opened the wardrobe, and pulled out some clothes to put on.
Then I heard the sound of small footsteps approaching from the living room.
"Hero? Where are you going?"
It was Laila.
She was dressed comfortably.
"Just going to get some fresh air."
The moment I saw her, my expression relaxed and I smiled.
I walked over to her and carefully kissed her forehead.
"Should I bring you something on the way back?"
Laila's eyes curved like crescent moons as she smiled brightly.
"Then... could you buy me some bread from that café right out front?"
"Got it."
I smiled naturally and nodded.
Then I turned around, opened the front door, and headed out.
'There's still some time until the semester starts... so I should take care of it before then.'
Cleaning up filth for my Saintess.
Isn't that also the Hero's duty?
---
The office was filled with thick cigarette smoke.
Through the darkened window, the city lights bled outward.
Inside the office, a middle-aged man, his dress shirt unbuttoned and loose, sat on the sofa with his face deeply furrowed.
A half-burned cigarette dangled between his fingers, and the ashtray was already piled with well over three butts.
"So... are those bastards the ones who did that to my son or not?"
In front of him, a man stood with his head bowed deeply.
"We are not certain... according to a witness, the last time they were seen, they were talking with your son..."
─ Smack!
In an instant, something flew through the air and struck the man's forehead.
It was the heavy glass ashtray, and it clattered against the floor with a metallic sound.
Blood began trickling down the man's forehead, but he stood perfectly still.
He hung his head even lower, not even letting out a groan.
"The last person my son had a conversation with was them?"
"Yes... the woman had blue hair and yellow eyes, the man wore a mask and a hat so it was difficult to..."
The bowing man continued cautiously.
"So... what do those bastards do?"
"I looked into it... but strangely, there is no information at all. It's as if something is being deliberately hidden..."
"Ha, fuck..."
─ Bang!
This time, the table was kicked.
The rage-fueled kick sent the table screeching, scattering ash everywhere.
"You can't even find out that much? What! I pay you people to find things out!"
He shot up from his seat, grinding his cigarette out mercilessly as he snarled.
"Just bring them in."
"Excuse me?"
"Don't make me say it twice. Bring them in! You said they were the last ones talking to my son, so they must know something!!!"
"Boss... but there's no charge we can..."
"Shut up!"
His eyes were bloodshot.
If they turned out to be the culprits, he had no intention of simply handing them over to the police.
He planned to leak their identities to the media he had paid off, ruin them socially, and relentlessly pressure their parents into bankruptcy.
'How dare they touch my son?'
Then he would have them crippled by hired men.
And he was going to torment them relentlessly for the rest of their lives.
Torment them until they were driven to suicide.
"Hoo..."
That was when it happened.
─ Thud!
The office door flew open without a knock.
The man, momentarily bewildered by this behavior, soon shouted.
"Fuck! I specifically said don't come in! Which bastard...!"
But at the sight before him, his voice gradually faded.
'...?'
Three or four men and women in black suits entered the office.
Their mouths were set in straight lines, staring straight ahead, and the man at the front spoke precisely and firmly.
"Are you Park Jong-gu?"
"...What?"
Park Jong-gu's eyebrow twitched, and his lips twisted.
"You little shits right now... do you even know who I...?"
It was at that moment.
The man in front silently pulled back the hem of his jacket.
And inside, tucked into his waistband, a black pistol was fully revealed.
His expression remained completely unchanged.
With a cold, calculated tone, he spoke again.
"I will ask you one more time. Are you Park Jong-gu?"
Park Jong-gu's eyes wavered for the first time.
The strange, frigid atmosphere.
'In the Republic of Korea... a gun...?'
Only then did it dawn on him.
As a chill ran down his spine and his head cooled, rational judgment returned.
'From the start, why was there no word from the security on the first floor while these bastards came all the way up to the office?'
At that moment, the suited individuals parted to the sides, revealing a man behind them.
He wore a black field jacket and jeans.
A wide-brimmed hat pulled down low, with his face covered by a mask beneath it.
'What the fuck was this bastard...?'
The man walked into the office and sat down casually on the sofa opposite Park Jong-gu.
Then he looked around and said quietly.
"Let's have the uninvolved people leave."
At those words.
The suited personnel all nodded in unison and filed out of the room.
As they left, they also took Park Jong-gu's secretary with them.
─ Thud!
"Wh-who the hell are you..."
The man seated in front of Park Jong-gu remained still, utterly silent.
"I asked you what the hell you are!"
Then the man lounging on the sofa.
He parted his lips briefly as if reciting a prepared line.
"Weren't you looking for the culprit who did that to your son?"
Park Jong-gu's eyes shook.
At that moment, his heart began pounding a beat late.
"Th-then... you're... how dare you do that to my son!!!"
As he tried to shout.
Quietly, yet coldly, the man brought his index finger to his lips.
"You're too loud, so speak quietly."
At that one phrase, the temperature inside the office plummeted.
Then the man found his voice again.
This time, his tone had a bit more suppressed rage and a forced inflection trying to hide fear.
"Why the hell would you do such a thing to my son... Do you think you'll get away with this?"
"Because he made lewd comments toward my woman."
"Wh-what? For a simple reason like that, you did that to a child..."
"Did what?"
He cut Park Jong-gu off without mercy.
"Is your son injured right now, hovering between life and death, or crippled somewhere?"
Park Jong-gu's mouth shut.
His son was hospitalized, truly without a single scratch.
Even the doctor said so.
That medically, there was nothing wrong with him.
Biting his lip and wringing out his last shred of pride, he spoke.
"...You, can you handle the consequences?"
At that, the man scoffed as if he had heard a ridiculous joke.
Then he slowly removed his hat and mask.
Park Jong-gu's eyes widened upon seeing the man's face.
"You... you, you... you are...?"
It was unbelievable.
Sounds leaked from his mouth like a broken machine.
Because the man the whole world was buzzing about was sitting right in front of his eyes.
─ Rustle...
Song Hoon silently pulled out papers from his jacket.
And he tossed them one sheet at a time, seemingly indifferent, toward Park Jong-gu's face.
─ Flutter... Smack...
The papers flew one by one, smacking his face before falling.
The papers contained...
[ Drug-facilitated rape, blackmailing victims' families, lobbying to omit articles, forging settlement agreements with a lawyer, forcing victims to relocate. ]
Park Jong-gu bit his lip as he stared at the documents.
These weren't just empty threats for intimidation; they were all collected evidence.
"Bribery, embezzlement, forced sexual harassment... well, that's a lot..."
'Where the hell did he...? I already destroyed all documents...'
At that moment, Song Hoon lifted up a small voice recorder.
"It's a victim who was hurt by your son. She even considered suicide."
- Then again, no matter what you do, people will just think it's a sly bitch's pranks.
The voice.
It was unmistakably his son.
The son who took after him with his quick wit and that unique nuance of his.
"If you had evidence like this, why go through all the trouble..."
Song Hoon stood up without a word and turned away.
And before leaving, he added one final remark.
"Then again, no matter what you do, people will just think it's a slander against Unknown Hunter."
---
- Shall we begin?
"Yes."
I hung up the phone and casually slipped my smartphone into my pocket.
The rumors about him and his son would slowly spread by word of mouth.
Park Jong-gu's business would grind to a halt, riddled with cracks; his affairs would begin to go wrong one by one, and even the people who had remained by his side would leave.
And that son.
Underneath his glamorous exterior, various controversies would come to light, he would have to watch his back no matter where he was, and he would shudder at the sound of others whispering.
"Haah... Seeing it like this, am I a bit malicious too?"
Punishments like prison time or whatever didn't matter to me.
Those were just trivial devices discussed within the system.
The sentence I dealt them was the slow, crumbling collapse of life itself.
"It's the school Laila attends... so it should be clean."
I felt refreshed at the thought of having done a clean job of cleaning up.
Once the semester started, the department would probably be in an uproar with countless rumors.
"Ah, right. I need to buy bread."