Chapter 18. UFO Appearance
Chapter 18. UFO Appearance
In front of the tuna sashimi restaurant Cheolmin found, Bella stopped walking.
A sudden premonition.
The kind of premonition she couldn’t control always involved her own safety.
In Bella’s vision, she and Cheolmin were running in and out of the bathroom tomorrow. But Kang Chan just held his stomach for a moment, then looked calm again.
“I hate here. No good!”
Bella said that and blocked Chan and Cheolmin.
“Huh? Why? This place is famous.”
Cheolmin was curious, but Bella had no intention of explaining. She looked at the restaurant across the street—an old place in a shabby one-story building.
“Eat that. That tasty!”
Then the future changed.
The three of them ate something like bubbling stew at that restaurant, and the next day they were fine.
“Budae-jjigae? That place is old too, but… I still want to treat you to something good, Little Brother!”
“No. This place! No!”
Seeing Bella speak so firmly, I told Cheolmin hyung,
“I like budae-jjigae. Let’s go there.”
We ordered seven servings of budae-jjigae.
I ate about one serving, Cheolmin hyung ate two, and Bella ate four.
She really was a pig.
A pink pig.
I asked Bella what I’d been wondering earlier.
“Then why do you always wear the same clothes?”
She couldn’t understand long Korean yet, so Cheolmin hyung translated—and the answer I got was ridiculous.
“Chan clothes same too. You, me same. F*ck.”
With an annoyed expression, she clenched her fist at me like she was about to punch, then chugged a glass full of soju.
“F*ck,” seriously…
She was definitely learning Korean from dramas.
“Thanks to you, Little Brother, I’ve gotten past a lot of crises. For the time being, I’d like to stay at the place where you work and receive guidance—would that be uncomfortable for you? I’m also worried that when I handled things with the boss and manager today, I might’ve crossed a line and upset you.”
“Hey, what do you mean, worried? You handled it really well. Don’t worry about me—just stay comfortably like a guest. You can stay as long as you want. And earlier, I saw those guys cleaning—are they your juniors, Cheolmin hyung?”
“They’re not from our Isu Gang… It’s just that word spread big in this world that we crushed those infamous Incheon Faction bastards. So even sides that used to oppose us are bowing their heads now. And a lot of kids have been coming to us saying they want to become part of us. The guys working today are some of the applicants we picked out. I said I’d keep them close, watch how they work, and then decide whether to take them in as family.”
Cheolmin hyung looked bright, like his business was going well.
“How’s training going? Any changes in your body?”
“I actually wanted to tell you that. Once the core settled in my body, my physical abilities shot up. My reflexes and strength aren’t even comparable to before.”
“Yeah? That’s good.”
From what I could see, nothing had really changed except that there was a ping-pong-ball-sized lump stuck in his dantian, but if he was satisfied, that was good.
“After we eat, I’ll take another look at you.”
“After this, I have an appointment. I got contacted by the Samhaphoe bastards—supposedly the ones behind the Incheon Faction. So I’m going to meet them and hear what they want to say.”
“Samhaphoe? Isn’t that dangerous?”
“I set the meeting in a crowded area on purpose. Today, we’ll just talk. Still, don’t worry. Just in case, I’m bringing some kids with me.”
But I was worried about Cheolmin hyung.
The 500 million won I took was basically payment for guaranteeing his safety while he stayed at our motel. If something happened to him, that wouldn’t do.
The telekinesis I’d attached to Cheolmin hyung’s shoulder was connected like a thread. If anything happened, I’d step in.
Cheolmin saw Master and the neighbor from Room 102 off.
The two didn’t go straight back to the motel—they went into an ice cream shop.
Now that he looked, they actually looked like a pretty well-matched man and woman, and Cheolmin’s expression turned pleased as he watched.
A moment later, subordinates who had been waiting discreetly gathered behind Cheolmin.
The Samhaphoe had suddenly contacted him in early evening, saying they had something to say about the Incheon Faction situation.
Not only were they known as the backers of those brutal Incheon Faction bastards—the name “Samhaphoe” itself was world-class, on the level of the yakuza and the mafia.
But Cheolmin wasn’t that scared.
The core in his dantian, still burning hot with presence even now.
He’d only trained for a day, but he could clearly tell he’d changed.
If a fight broke out, he wanted to test how much he’d grown. He wasn’t afraid of punks swinging sashimi knives.
He would never feel that helplessness again.
The meeting place with the Samhaphoe was an underground room salon in Gangnam.
When Cheolmin and the Isu Gang men entered, a Chinese man in a suit guided them as if he’d been waiting.
These bastards didn’t feel like street trash like the Incheon Faction.
They were sharp, like professional killers.
When the innermost door opened, three Samhaphoe members were already waiting.
Cheolmin briefly swept his gaze over the gaunt man sitting in the seat of honor, then sat down. The Isu Gang men stood along one wall like folding screens, waiting.
The Chinese man said something, and the man sitting on the right translated.
“Hello. Nice to meet you. As we said on the phone, we are the Heukryong faction under the Samhaphoe, who were partners with the Incheon Faction. This person here is an executive of the Heukryong faction. We’ll tell you his name later.”
“What is it that’s got you calling people around like this…”
Most organizations would’ve been crushed by the name Samhaphoe, but Cheolmin wasn’t afraid at all. He was calm.
As if sensing that, the so-called Heukryong executive smirked and spoke.
“You probably dislike long talk, so I’ll get to the point. Because you wiped out the Incheon Faction, our business has gotten difficult. But we have no desire to ask for responsibility. Business partners change all the time. Our boss says he likes your guts. So from now on, he wants you to take charge of our business in Korea.”
Cheolmin pulled out a cigarette from his suit’s inner pocket and put it in his mouth, but then remembered he’d decided to quit, so he placed it on the table and continued.
“If you mean the Incheon Faction’s business—drugs and selling people’s blood—then yeah, that, right? You sons of bitches. Is that something a human does?”
The Heukryong executive’s eyes turned vicious. Even without translation, he seemed to understand Korean to some extent.
He slammed the table and shouted something.
“You are being insolent. I don’t know what you’re relying on to act like this, but we are not people that Korean punks can be this rude to.”
“What, punks? You Chinese bastards—looking to die?”
The Isu Gang men standing to the side shouted in anger.
At that moment, I—who had been lying down trying to sleep—realized I had to step in.
I didn’t know how strong Cheolmin hyung had become after learning internal energy, but this situation was out of his league.
I climbed into a red rubber tub on the rooftop, closed the lid, and shot up into the air.
That way, even if I flew, people would only see the tub, so there was no risk of my face being exposed.
The moment I rose into the air, the man seated on the left pulled a handgun and fired at the Isu Gang.
It had a suppressor, so there wasn’t a huge gunshot, but it was louder than the “movie suppressor” sound, and it echoed in the room.
In an instant, I reached 300 meters above the Gangnam room salon where Cheolmin hyung was and twisted the bullets’ trajectories so they missed.
A bullet that had been aimed at the thigh of the Isu Gang man who stepped in for Cheolmin hyung barely veered off and smashed the karaoke machine behind him.
“Gah—!”
When the gun came out and fired, the Isu Gang men flinched in shock, and Cheolmin stood up and stepped back.
But when the shot missed despite being aimed, the Heukryong executive frowned and aimed again.
“Tuk, tuk, tuk!”
The gunshots were low and dull, probably because of the suppressor.
But again, they missed and buried themselves in an innocent monitor and karaoke machine.
“These bastards—”
Cheolmin launched himself up from his seat in a leap and threw a kick, smashing the gunman in the head.
The man toppled backward.
The translator—who didn’t seem like a fighter—stumbled back in shock, then got grabbed and subdued by an Isu Gang member.
Then the middle guy—the one who looked like the mid-boss—his eyes turned blood-red.
He swung at Cheolmin, and it wasn’t a fist—it was sharp claws.
The moment Cheolmin saw it, he knew this bastard was the same kind as the monster he’d seen in the basement that day.
The speed was beyond human movement, but thanks to internal energy, his reflexes had risen enough that he could barely dodge.
While avoiding the mid-boss’s attacks, Cheolmin smashed a fist into the left side of the man’s face.
But the bastard saw the punch coming and tried to duck.
Then suddenly his neck stiffened—he couldn’t dodge, and instead shoved his head right into Cheolmin’s fist.
The mid-boss took the punch clean.
His head exploded like a watermelon, bursting into pieces.
The Isu Gang men behind him—and even the Heukryong guy who’d been firing the gun—stared with their mouths hanging open.
[An unidentified flying object has been detected. Location: airspace over Gangnam, Seoul. It is currently stationary in midair.]
The U.S. military’s cutting-edge low-altitude radar network—monitoring Seoul—picked up an anomalous flying object.
Because surveillance over Seoul had been raised to the highest level, this report was relayed in real time all the way to the U.S. Department of Defense, and an observation satellite was redirected to that location.
Footage from the satellite began streaming into the Pentagon situation room.
A red rubber tub was floating in midair.
[What is that? A normal tub? How can it be floating in the air?]
The satellite zoomed in, but the lid was closed, so it couldn’t see inside. No matter how it looked, it was just an ordinary rubber tub.
[It suddenly appeared on radar. We can’t identify where it came from. It’s as if it appeared out of nowhere.]
Another phenomenon they couldn’t understand.
A supernatural event that couldn’t be explained by physics or science.
And it had been happening all day in the Republic of Korea.
[It disappeared.]
The red cylindrical rubber tub abruptly vanished from both the satellite feed and radar.
[Is it a UFO?]
[Its movement qualifies as a UFO, but that object is something commonly used in Korean households—a rubber tub called a “gomutong.” It’s a common item you can see anywhere.]
The U.S. Department of Defense felt like it had been handed another impossible problem.
The president ordering all intelligence resources to focus on Korea had been an extremely wise decision.
Something was happening in Korea—something they couldn’t understand yet.
[What about the agents headed to Korea?]
[Agents in nearby areas have already arrived in Korea, but most are currently on flights to Korea. A total of 97 agents have been dispatched, and within three days, 124 agents will be added.]
[Deploy them in a dragnet and have them report directly to us on even the smallest movement.]
[Understood.]
Around the time those words were being spoken in the U.S., Inspector Kim Juhyeok—waiting in a car outside the Gangnam room salon—jumped out and rushed inside.
He’d been appointed as the overall person responsible for the Incheon Faction mass-murder case, but when the key suspects—the Incheon Faction members—died from unknown causes, he’d been pushed out of his position.
His new assignment was close surveillance of one of the main figures present at the scene: Isu Gang boss Choi Cheolmin.
Cheolmin had a home, but he was staying long-term at the motel where his subordinate Yoonseop had committed suicide.
But tonight, after leaving the motel with what looked like his lover—a Russian woman—and a motel employee to eat dinner, he’d suddenly headed here.
And his behavior was off.
Every Isu Gang member had gathered with expressions like they were going to war.
When a bloody gang war seemed likely, Inspector Kim Juhyeok requested a special tactical unit.
He also planted an agent next door to Cheolmin’s room, disguised as a customer.
But only minutes after going in, the agent sent an urgent report.
“Inspector. Gunshots. I heard dull suppressed gunfire from the next room.”
Kim Juhyeok ordered the tactical unit to breach and rushed in himself.
He kicked open the door to Cheolmin’s room before the tactical unit could.
“Hands up. Police.”
Inside were two men collapsed on the floor, Choi Cheolmin, and ten Isu Gang members.
“Inspector?”
Cheolmin recognized Kim Juhyeok.
But Kim Juhyeok had clearly seen it.
A human-shaped figure that was almost gone—turning into black ash.