Chapter 104
Chapter 104
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: Someone Was Watching (1)
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“Is this the last box?”
Leila asked, watching Kanghyeok step out the door with a box in his arms.
She wore a coat against the cold. Kanghyeok answered her with a nod, then looked back at the door.
A year and several months.
It was the door to the old apartment where he had lived.
“I didn’t expect you to be sentimental about it.”
“It’s not that.”
Kanghyeok muttered in a small, dry voice.
Memories flashed through his mind: the day he’d first drifted here, the day he met Leila and William, and the moments he’d worked so hard to get his laptop back.
“Hah!”
Since when had he been so sentimental?
Kanghyeok shook his head and readjusted his grip on the box.
“Well then, shall we get going?”
“Just help me carry this to the car. I’ll help you with yours in return.”
Leila, who clearly detested this apartment, replied as she lifted the box at Kanghyeok’s feet.
“My things are already loaded.”
Kanghyeok gave a short laugh and started walking with the box.
But at the top of the stairs, he glanced back at the apartment one last time.
‘I never thought it would come to this.’
He had spent a year living like a fugitive.
A year spent in a home that felt like a prison.
Before Leila and William found him, he couldn’t have imagined this, not even in his dreams.
It hadn’t been long since he’d found a reason to live, a purpose to achieve, yet his environment had changed as if rewarding him for it.
“Kanghyeok?”
Leila called out from the bottom of the stairs, and Kanghyeok tore his gaze away from the apartment.
“Let’s go.”
Kanghyeok descended the stairs, clutching the box.
The miscellaneous items inside rattled and danced, among them his laptop.
The laptop that had once been his reason for living was now just another item, cradled among the rest of his belongings.
*Clatter, clatter.*
Carrying the box, Kanghyeok made his way down to the parking lot.
A few guys in the corner, rolling marijuana in torn book pages, jumped in surprise at the sight of him and fled. Kanghyeok didn’t spare them a glance as he loaded the box into the car’s trunk.
“Whoa.”
The fleeing guys nudged each other, whispering as they watched Kanghyeok climb into a sleek black sports car.
They probably felt like they’d just seen a ghost.
The only Northeast Asian in this city.
Kanghyeok, who used to be ignored even by kids, had suddenly become a figure of fear.
It felt a bit strange to describe a colleague this way, but he was accompanied by Leila, who could certainly be called a beauty, and drove a sports car anyone would covet.
And now, he would be living in a safe house more luxurious than any other building in the city.
“How does it feel?”
Leila asked, noticing Kanghyeok watching the dumbfounded faces of the guys. Kanghyeok just smirked.
Leila mirrored his smile and fastened her seatbelt on the passenger side.
*Click.*
Kanghyeok fastened his own and started the engine.
*Vrooom!*
A heavy vibration rumbled, and the air around them seemed to shift.
*VROOOOM!*
With just a light press of the accelerator, his sports car shot forward, leaving black tire marks on the pavement.
*Thump.*
The makeshift marijuana cigarette dropped from the mouth of one of the guys who had been watching Kanghyeok from the corner.
They were too stunned to notice, their minds trailing the disappearing sports car.
“Fucking hell, I’m so jealous.”
One of them muttered as Kanghyeok’s sports car vanished from sight. The one next to him couldn’t say a word.
Instead, he nodded faintly, his expression one of bone-deep agreement.
His eyes seemed to say that if he had known things would turn out like this, he would have tried to get on Kanghyeok’s good side when he was the most looked-down-upon person in the city.
“Could you hold that part for me?”
“Right here?”
“Yes, that’s it.”
In the gunsmith’s basement.
Amidst the faint aroma of fine liquors, the Master carefully lifted the chest plate of a thick suit of body armor.
It belonged to one of Iron Mask’s men who had attacked Kanghyeok in the Middle East.
The men had been clad in full body armor.
Kanghyeok had brought one of the corpses back from the Middle East, and now its armor was being disassembled on a workbench, like a surgical table, by the Master and Jeff Black.
“His skill is remarkable.”
The Master paused his work and looked over at Jeff.
“Are you referring to Iron Mask?”
“No. I’m talking about Kanghyeok.”
“Hmm?”
“There are barely any scratches on the exterior plating. He shot only where necessary to neutralize the target.”
The Master looked at the piece of armor in his hand and nodded.
“Kanghyeok’s skills have been famous for some time. Not just the company, but many people are watching him.”
*Snap!*
The Master twisted and broke a thin metal clip connecting the outer and inner plates, a faint smile on his lips.
“He will surely rise to a high position within the company.”
“There’s no doubt about that, is there?”
Jeff Black and the Master met each other’s gaze.
Then, with an awkward laugh, they both turned their attention back to the body armor.
They had had the same thought in that instant.
That they sounded like doting grandfathers, completely lost in bragging about their grandson.
“In any case, the skill of the person who made this armor is also quite impressive.”
The Master spoke, his voice clearly changing the subject. Jeff chimed in with a similar tone.
“Though their intentions are impure.”
The suit was designed in a way that made it impossible to take off alone.
Certain parts were even welded, suggesting it was never meant to be removed.
“I suspect it was created by the man called Iron Mask.”
Jeff furrowed his brow as if asking who that was. The Master set down the armor plate he had removed and wiped his palms with a handkerchief.
“He’s someone like us.”
“Hmm.”
Jeff looked displeased, as if his craftsmanship had been challenged, but after examining the body armor on the workbench, he gave a slight nod.
“Well, it seems he’s not someone to be underestimated.”
A titanium alloy plate over a shock-absorbing gel.
The gel, like a highly elastic jelly, didn’t just absorb impact; it was a special material that hardened instantaneously upon impact, maximizing its ballistic performance.
“In terms of ballistic protection alone, it’s superior to the company’s suits.”
The Master flinched and looked at Jeff.
As if asking if he should be saying such things, Jeff smiled bitterly.
“I’m no longer affiliated with the company.”
“My condolences, Jeff Black.”
“It’s in the past. I’m fine.”
Jeff tilted his head to the side and meticulously examined the armor.
‘This is worth referencing.’
It was frustrating, but helpful.
This suit of armor, Iron Mask’s creation, gave Jeff a great deal of inspiration.
His creativity, long suppressed by company directives, was now unrestricted.
As such, Iron Mask’s armor provided Jeff with a clear path forward for how he should design his bulletproof suits.
“Overall, it’s quite interesting.”
“What do you mean?”
The Master tilted his head and spoke, as if Jeff wasn’t the only one who had noticed something about the armor.
“As you can see, the craftsmanship is delicate, but it feels hastily made. Like a prototype.”
“MK1, you mean?”
“Perhaps.”
Focusing on the feature the Master had pointed out, Jeff re-examined the armor.
‘He’s right…’
It felt like it had been made before reaching its final form.
There was a sense that subsequent models, an MK2 or MK3, would follow, and the possibility that its weaknesses would be reinforced couldn’t be ignored.
But that raised one concern.
This armor was almost impossible to put on or take off alone, like a spacesuit. If they were to reinforce the weak points at the seams…
‘The only way would be to install it on the body, like an implant.’
The simplest and most effective method would be to wear this armor like a second skin.
‘No. Who would do something so crazy?’
Just as Jeff shook his head, thinking his speculation was too extreme…
“This is…”
This time, it was the Master, who was examining the helmet, who frowned and picked up a screwdriver.
“Is there something there?”
“I’ll have to check.”
The Master pushed the screwdriver into a seam and dug deep inside, scraping downwards.
With a click, the sound of a latch releasing the top plate was heard, and the helmet’s outer shell fell away.
And there it was.
A small camera, hidden just beneath the outer shell.
Jeff’s face hardened in an instant, but the Master shook his head and picked up the wire connected to the camera with his fingers.
“No need to worry. The power is already dead.”
“Phew.”
Jeff let out a sigh of relief through his wrinkled lips.
If that camera had still been operational, it would have recorded him and the Master dismantling and analyzing the body armor.
“Just in case I have to ask, a GPS…?”
“There probably wasn’t one to begin with. Given the wiring and design, if there were a GPS, it would have to be in this area, but I didn’t see one.”
The Master spoke in his characteristically gentle tone, then held up the miniature camera to his eye.
“The connected battery is small. It has a network module, so it can transmit recorded video wirelessly.”
Muttering to himself, the Master’s eyes darted around.
Across from him, Jeff stared at the helmet where the camera had been installed.
‘Does this mean someone was watching?’
Considering the battery capacity, its purpose was likely to record Kanghyeok’s fight with them.
Iron Mask.
Jeff sucked in his lips as he guessed the man’s purpose for watching.
He felt an unknown entity, one targeting Kanghyeok, creeping closer from the darkness.
***
On the operating table, the man stared at the light fixture on the ceiling.
“Hssss.”
Was a surgical room always this cold?
A chill seeped into his entire body, so cold he felt as if he’d been thrown naked onto the Siberian plains.
*Snip, snip.*
Below his neck, he could hear the sound of doctors snipping at his skin with scissors.
Titanium components similar to bolts were being attached to his skeleton, and he also underwent surgery to remove the permanently damaged nerves in his face.
Iron Mask.
The man, once known as Lento, endured all these procedures with only minimal anesthesia.
A surgery performed without the general anesthesia that would render him unconscious.
The doctors and his subordinates had tried to stop him, but they couldn’t break his will.
He hated the idea of general anesthesia.
It was because of one man.
Kanghyeok, who had followed him even into the sea to kill him.
The moment he underwent general anesthesia, which was akin to death, he felt that the fear of death Kanghyeok had deeply ingrained in him would suffocate him.
“W-we’re almost finished. Please hold on a little longer.”
The doctor said, his hands moving busily in blood-soaked green gloves. A nurse wiped the cold sweat from the doctor’s brow with a cotton towel.
Iron Mask said nothing, simply waiting for the surgery to end.
“Now, all that’s left is to connect the armor plates.”
The doctor met Iron Mask’s gaze and swallowed nervously.
He then instructed the assistant surgeon and nurse to bring the silver armor plates.
*Clank!*
The titanium bolts, connected to his bones and protruding above his muscles, slid into the holes of the armor plate.
*Whirrrrr.*
The doctor, using a power tool ill-suited for an operating room to assemble the titanium armor, felt his mind going numb.
When had he ever imagined performing a surgery like this?
Surgery was a skill used to heal people.
But what he was doing now was akin to creating a monster, not a person.
*Click, whirr.*
The operating table was rotated to attach the armor plates to his back as well.
The last part remaining was his head.
Over his face, where the skin had been melted away by chemicals, revealing grotesque muscle tissue, a silver helmet was placed.
In time, the medical-grade gel installed beneath the helmet would act as a substitute for his skin, making him one with the bulletproof helmet.
“It’s all done.”
“Help me up.”
Iron Mask spoke in a hoarse voice. The doctors swarmed in, undid the restraints on the operating table, and helped him sit up.
Iron Mask, who had always been large, was now significantly bigger due to the armor plates.
*Clatter-clatter-clatter.*
A nurse, trembling with fear at his intimidating presence, approached Iron Mask with a silver tray in her shaking hands.
On the tray was the mask that connected to the helmet.
With the doctors’ help, Iron Mask picked up the mask and slowly brought it to his face.
*Click.*
With the sound of interlocking metal, the mask perfectly covered his nose and mouth.
“A mirror…”
The doctor hastily looked around, then snatched the tray from the nurse’s hands and held it up to reflect Iron Mask’s face.
*Clink, clank.*
The multi-layered helmet made metallic sounds as its parts shifted against each other, following the minute movements of his facial muscles.
His appearance was like that of a monster.
No trace of humanity remained, save for his two eyes.
Iron Mask, with every other part of his body encased in bulletproof material, felt a sense of peace for the first time in a long while.
Someday, and not in the distant future.
His eyes gleamed menacingly with the conviction that, should he meet Kanghyeok again, this body would be able to overwhelm him.