Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: The Bonjwa Six's Reformation
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“...”
Park Jong-pal had nothing to say.
He had no choice but to feel that way.
Hae-jin had moved first to strike at the Bonjwa faction, and only afterward did Park Jong-pal arrive at the Bonjwa faction's building with the rest of the group by car.
Everyone blocked the arriving group led by Park Jong-pal, but the Bonjwa faction remnants weren't enough to stop the group with Manager Kim.
So he took out all the remnants blocking the way in the Bonjwa faction building and headed to where the six who could be called the owners of this place were.
As soon as he entered there, Park Jong-pal could see it.
“Reform!”
“Let's do it!”
“Reform!”
“Let's do it!”
“Reform!”
“Let's do it!”
“Reform!”
“Let's do it!”
....
The Bonjwa Six were repeatedly sitting and standing while shouting about reforming.
And Hae-jin was watching them after moving one of the sofas that seemed to have been three on each side to make a seat of honor.
Hae-jin, who had been watching the Bonjwa Six reform, waved his hand when he saw Park Jong-pal's group arrive.
“Ah, you've arrived?”
Park Jong-pal's group approached Hae-jin, who was welcoming them.
Park Jong-pal, standing next to Hae-jin, asked.
“Leader, this is... right now...”
“Ah, they said they wanted to reform, so I'm having them do it without their instruments for now.”
“Without their instruments?”
Taking away the instruments from the six heads of the Bonjwa faction.
It didn't seem to make any sense.
To such Park Jong-pal, Hae-jin explained why he was currently disciplining the Bonjwa Six.
“They'll probably get life sentences for their weapons anyway, but they seem to think that's better than dying. So they're reforming so diligently like that.”
Hae-jin, who hadn't killed them because they said they wanted to reform, and was putting them through disciplinary training instead.
Then Park Jong-pal threw out a question.
“But didn't you immediately behead Cho Jun-hee?”
It didn't seem like Hae-jin had given Cho Jun-hee any such chance.
He had vanished, cut off Cho Jun-hee's head right away, and returned.
To that, Hae-jin explained why he had immediately lopped off Cho Jun-hee's head.
“Ah, that guy tried to use 'Soul Subjugation' on me. I got annoyed and gouged out his eyes right away, and he begged me to just kill him instead.”
Soul Subjugation.
A technique that subdues the opponent's soul with mental power, commonly used in the form of brainwashing others.
Cho Jun-hee had possessed the Rune of Hypnosis, and using that rune, he had cast Soul Subjugation on people to freely commit crimes.
But at the time he faced Hae-jin, Cho Jun-hee knew he was the Massacre and tried to use Soul Subjugation on him to make him his subordinate.
Naturally, it didn't work at all on Hae-jin, who had inherited everything from Joo-hyuk.
It only served to sour Hae-jin's mood.
So Hae-jin immediately gouged out Cho Jun-hee's eyes.
Because he had pathetically tried to use Soul Subjugation through his eyes.
When Hae-jin said he had pulled out the eyes, Park Jong-pal asked.
“So you killed him then?”
“I did kill him, but since there were victims who had suffered because of him, I handled their revenge first before killing him.”
“Revenge?”
“Well, nothing much. I slowly ground off his limbs from the tips to make him suffer, then left only his head.”
“...”
Park Jong-pal was at a loss for words upon hearing how Hae-jin had dealt with Cho Jun-hee.
Suddenly, such a thought crossed Park Jong-pal's mind.
‘No matter how much these villains are criminals, giving the Leader free rein to handle them... wasn't that a mistake?’
Because hearing how he handled Cho Jun-hee felt extremely cruel.
As if seeing through Park Jong-pal's thoughts, Hae-jin smirked.
“Does it seem like I handled it cruelly?”
“Well...”
“You saw the files too, right? About how the victims died because of Cho Jun-hee.”
“Ahem.”
Park Jong-pal couldn't refute Hae-jin's words.
Cho Jun-hee had committed countless crimes through those he brainwashed with Soul Subjugation, and those crimes started light but grew increasingly horrific midway through.
Considering the victims, it was ambiguous to call Hae-jin's handling cruel or excessive.
Because he was a villain even more inhuman than that.
As Park Jong-pal didn't deny it, Hae-jin continued.
“Anyway, ever since I became the leader of this unit, handling villains is entirely up to my discretion, right?”
“Yes, that's true.”
Right.
When Hae-jin promised to join the Villain Crime Task Force, there were only two conditions.
Tax exemption for the players in the team he assembled, and freedom in how to execute villains.
So whether he killed Cho Jun-hee cruelly or not, no one could touch it.
In fact, while Park Jong-pal thought that about the Cho Jun-hee matter, watching Hae-jin handle the current Bonjwa Six brought another thought.
‘If he just enjoyed cruelly killing people, they wouldn't be acting like this.’
If Hae-jin had joined the Villain Crime Task Force simply to cruelly kill people, then the Bonjwa faction should have been killed just as cruelly as Cho Jun-hee.
But what about now?
Because he heard their will to reform, he wasn't killing them and was giving them disciplinary training with the intent to make them reform.
‘And the evaluation among players has changed too.’
Early on, many called Park Hae-jin the ‘Massacre’ and feared him.
But now?
Park Hae-jin's perception among players had changed a lot.
At first, since he had unhesitatingly killed thousands, many thought he was just a crazy psychopath murderer.
But as the Trials' Arena progressed, players in the same zone as Park Hae-jin left evaluations about him.
‘These days, he's even praised as a ‘hero’.’
Hero.
Park Hae-jin, who killed historic serial killers and even saved those who could have died in the Trials' Arena.
Because of that, people began rationalizing Park Hae-jin's actions in his first Trials' Arena, for which he earned the moniker Massacre.
‘Actually, in the first Trials' Arena, they were dead set on making us kill each other, so he just had the resolve.’
Anyway, after organizing those thoughts, Park Jong-pal asked Hae-jin.
“Then what will you do with the Bonjwa Six?”
“Honestly, sending them to life imprisonment is one way, but I thought of another method.”
“Another method?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
“They're players who have survived this far, so they're pretty strong in their own right, aren't they?”
“Hmm, yes.”
“If Manager Park is okay with it, incorporating them into our unit now could be a method, don't you think?”
“You mean into our ‘VilCrime Force’?”
“Yes.”
VilCrime Force was what they called the Villain Crime Task Force among themselves, since spelling out the full name every time felt awkward.
When Hae-jin said he would incorporate the Bonjwa Six into the VilCrime Force, Park Jong-pal fell into thought.
‘Wouldn't it be better to make them pay for their crimes in prison for life?’
As Park Jong-pal thought that, he recalled what Hae-jin had just said.
‘But for villains of their level, even prison is tricky.’
There had been discussions about a dedicated prison for villains caught by the VilCrime Force.
Because if you locked them up with regular criminals who weren't players, who knew what would happen.
So the players among the current prisoners were mostly placed under player police and kept in solitary confinement.
So there was debate about whether to keep managing them in solitary like this or build a villain-only prison since solitary would run out eventually.
But that wasn't easy either.
Because if you made a villain-only prison, they could band together.
Players were beings who could sway national defense single-handedly.
So if they banded together, they could become a group too hard to handle.
Moreover, players were halving every month.
So there was talk that building a dedicated prison for those disappearing monthly was a waste of taxes.
Thus, Park Jong-pal found Hae-jin's opinion reasonable.
‘If they can truly reform... then using villains to catch villains could be a method.’
Fight poison with poison.
He didn't think it was bad.
Park Jong-pal reached a conclusion.
“If the Leader says so, I must follow.”
“No, if Manager doesn't like it, we don't have to.”
“No. I think it's good.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
When Park Jong-pal said it was okay to add the Bonjwa Six to the VilCrime Force, Hae-jin called out to those still in disciplinary training.
“Guys.”
“Refor... Yes?”
“I think that's enough.”
“Yes, sir!”
When Hae-jin said they could stop the disciplinary training, the Bonjwa Six released their arm locks from their shoulders.
Hae-jin had given them names before Park Jong-pal's group arrived.
So he called out the one who would represent the Bonjwa Six for communication.
“Jin-hyung.”
“Yes, Massacre sir.”
“From now on, you'll bear full financial responsibility for all the illegal acts you committed, and instead of life in prison, you'll replace your prison time with labor alongside us.”
“Then we just work under you, big bro?”
“Yeah, first, we'll confiscate all the illegal acts you committed and the wealth you earned from them. Anyone have complaints?”
Though Jin-hyung was the representative for conversation, Hae-jin looked around at the rest of the Bonjwa heads in case any had complaints.
But no one voiced any dissatisfaction.
“...”
The silent Bonjwa Six.
Who would dare voice complaints to Hae-jin?
Unless they were fools, they wouldn't even dream of challenging the strongest player in existence.
Silence meant consent.
When all six Bonjwa remained silent, Hae-jin asked again.
“No complaints, right?”
“Yes, big bro!”
“Good, then handle what I told you to first. Execute.”
“Execute!”
Afterward, the Bonjwa faction was disbanded.
Everything they had earned through illegal means all went back to the victims, but among them, there were parts that couldn't be settled with money.
That was murder.
However, upon investigation by Hae-jin and Park Jong-pal, surprisingly, the Bonjwa Six hadn't committed any direct, unilateral murders.
Most of the murders were crimes committed by underlings out of excessive loyalty while the Bonjwa faction made money through illegal businesses, and the murders by the Bonjwa Six themselves mostly happened while capturing people from rival organizations during business expansions.
Anyway, after sorting everything out, Hae-jin was standing with Park Jong-pal in front of the Bonjwa Six.
Hae-jin called one of the Bonjwa Six.
“Seung-gyu.”
“Yes, big bro.”
“So, is your arm fine now?”
At Hae-jin's question, the one called Seung-gyu, formerly one of the Bonjwa Six, touched his arm.
He was the guy whose arm had been severed when he first took Hae-jin hostage and tried to threaten him.
Hae-jin had fixed that severed arm since he planned to have him work under him going forward.
Seung-gyu answered Hae-jin's question sheepishly.
“Haha, it moves well thanks to you, big bro.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Good, since you're all fine now, from here on, follow Manager Park's orders diligently and live as members of the VilCrime Force.”
At Hae-jin's words, the former Bonjwa Six, now the six new recruits of the VilCrime Force, responded energetically.
“Yes, sir!”