Chapter 11
Chapter 11
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: A Night Deep and Dark (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Good job. Keep looking into that coin thing.”
“Understood.”
As the situation seemed to be resolving favorably, the pot-bellied man looked up at Yohan, his face filled with hope.
The pot-bellied man had played a major role in turning the mood around. So, he thought, even if he didn't get a reward, he might at least be allowed to keep his life.
“Sir, I…”
The pot-bellied man spoke, revealing a subtle hint of expectation, and Yohan’s gaze shifted to him.
“What about you?”
At the icy voice, the man’s face froze.
“Huh? Oh, no, I gave you the information…”
“Why didn't you come to me right away, you fucking pig?”
Crouching down to meet the eyes of the pot-bellied man who had been caught trying to flee to another area, Yohan curled his lip, baring his teeth.
“What kind of trouble is this, all because of you, damn it. If you had come straight to me from the start, none of this would have happened.”
The pot-bellied man’s face turned from white to a deathly pale, and Yohan continued to speak, his eyes locked on him.
“I used to have a guy under me, an African.”
One of the subordinates, anticipating what was to come, moved out of the building.
Others opened a toolbox in the corner, while another began to approach the pot-bellied man, dragging a set of iron chains.
Clank, clank.
At the eerie sound, like a metal snake slithering closer, the pot-bellied man’s body trembled.
“He told me that back in his hometown, they put a tire around a man’s neck for an execution. When I asked if that was all, he just grinned.”
Yohan flashed a chilling smile, just like the subordinate in his story.
“Then they set it on fire. He said it’s quite a sight, watching the tire melt into the flesh and cling to the bones, you know? Hearing that made me so curious. Just what kind of a mess do they become when they die?”
Yohan straightened his knees and stood up, looking down at the pot-bellied man with cold eyes.
“I’ll make you just like him.”
Yohan signaled with a jerk of his chin, and the pot-bellied man’s wrists and ankles were bound with the chains.
“Yo-Yohan, Yohaaan!”
Yohan turned his back and put a cigarette to his lips.
As he pulled out his Zippo lighter, a tire was forced over the pot-bellied man’s neck. Then, gasoline was poured over the head of the man, who was now wailing like a newborn beast.
Click! Fwoosh!
Yohan lit his cigarette, then flicked the lit lighter at the pot-bellied man as if tossing away a butt.
Whoosh! Fwoosh!
“Aaaaargh!”
A gut-wrenching scream.
Billowing black smoke and the smell of melting rubber quickly filled the space.
Fwoosh!
“Noooaaaaargh!”
With the flames soaring menacingly behind him, Yohan took a drag from his cigarette and waved a hand at his men.
“Spread the word. Get a description of that Kanghyeok bastard and the car that helped him. Find them all.”
Yohan coveted the laptop.
At the same time, Kanghyeok, who was searching for that same laptop, was an annoyance.
To make the laptop completely his, and to take revenge on the one who dared to challenge his gang, Kanghyeok could not be allowed to live.
“Should we take him alive?”
At his subordinate’s question, Yohan glanced back.
Fwoosh!
His face, stained red by the flickering flames, twisted into a sneer.
“Why bother? Corpses burn, too.”
The subordinate nodded, a corner of his mouth lifting into a crooked smile.
“Understood.”
His eyes gleamed with murderous intent.
Vroom.
The SUV moved along the outer roads, trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
The vehicle was too noticeable in this neighborhood, and there was no sense in drawing attention, given the possibility that the gang members might be hunting for the SUV carrying Kanghyeok and Leila.
Click, clack.
In the back seat, Kanghyeok loaded bullets into a magazine, his gaze occasionally drifting out the window.
It was terribly dark.
This was not a bustling neighborhood to begin with.
Here, where gangs roamed freely and law enforcement was non-functional, a short drive to the outskirts meant roads and streetlights were no longer in proper order.
They had to navigate through the darkness relying solely on the car’s headlights, and it felt like driving through the tangled depths of his own mind.
‘How will they react?’
If they found out the laptop held Bitcoin, they would probably try to take hostages.
They might even abandon the gang and leave town.
But would things really go as they planned?
When this darkness passed and the sun rose, would they be alive to see tomorrow?
Probably not.
‘Not when I’m feeling like this.’
Anger, loss, longing, and the relief of a reunion.
All these emotions tangled together, creating a chaos as thick as the darkness outside the window.
It was a complex feeling.
But one thing was certain: it was not a positive one.
Just then, the SUV turned right, and a faint light appeared through the windshield, which had previously shown only darkness.
The boundary between this district and the next.
It was the light from the streetlamps of a relatively normal neighborhood.
‘A club?’
There was no way a drug manufacturing facility or a warehouse for stolen goods would be in a place like this, so they were undoubtedly heading to a club.
“At this hour, this was the only place to find out where the laptop might be.”
As if reading his thoughts, Leila spoke at the perfect moment.
Kanghyeok nodded and clipped the fully loaded magazine into the pouch on his vest.
Vroom.
As they neared their destination, the car slowed down, and Leila clicked her tongue softly as she looked at the club.
“It’s bigger than I thought.”
“That makes sense.”
Property values were low here.
You could buy a house for what you’d pay as a deposit on a monthly rental in Korea, and for the price of a long-term lease in the Gyeonggi province, you could probably buy a building this size.
But it wasn't something to be envious of.
This was a neighborhood where you could die at any moment.
In any case, buying a building wasn't cheap, but the gang had a reason to run a club.
The business stability and profits from distributing their own drugs in their own club would have been quite tempting.
It allowed them to secure potential customers and launder money.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
It could also satisfy the cheap tastes of their gang members, who were content with such a simple beat.
In the grand scheme of things, it was even a form of welfare for the gang members, so there was no reason not to run a club.
“Will you go in alone?”
“Just provide support.”
Leila nodded.
“My outfit is a bit conspicuous, I suppose.”
A woman in a suit.
She would stand out too much in a cheap club like this.
Kanghyeok, on the other hand, could pass for a club employee or manager, allowing him to blend in more naturally.
“Will you be long?”
“I’ll just get the information I need and get out. It won’t take long.”
There were too many civilians.
If it were only gang members, it would be a different story, but being a club, there were many innocent patrons.
A fight in a place like this would inevitably drag in innocent people.
That was why he had to leave the rifle he had just been reunited with on the seat next to him.
Taking only his pistol and a knife, Kanghyeok was about to get out when he turned his gaze to Leila.
“Suppressor?”
“Right here.”
As if she had known he would ask, Leila pulled out a suppressor and handed it to him. Kanghyeok screwed it onto the barrel of his pistol.
Then, without a backward glance, he got out of the car. Leila drove on, her eyes on him in the rearview mirror for a long moment.
Step, step.
The bouncer’s eyes fell on Kanghyeok as he approached the club.
Being Asian made him stand out, but he wasn't stopped.
They probably thought he was just a well-dressed Asian man out for a night of fun.
And they were club bouncers, after all.
They didn't search his belongings, so Kanghyeok entered the club without any trouble.
He passed through a dark hallway with crude drawings in fluorescent paint and headed for the main area, where the loud beat began to pound against his body in earnest.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump! Thump!
The smell of alcohol, a thick haze of cigarette smoke, and the scent of marijuana, like burning mugwort.
The lights on the ceiling dyed the smoke in a myriad of colors.
Kanghyeok moved past people mindlessly swaying to the music, his eyes scanning the crowd for Yohan’s gang members.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
A club is a place where it's okay to let go of your inhibitions for a while, but this place felt a bit extreme.
It wasn’t hard to spot people high on drugs, and there were more than a few sprawled on chairs with their eyes rolled back in their heads.
Thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump!
My God…
The whites of a junkie’s eyes, glittering in all the colors of the rainbow under the blotchy, flashing lights.
With a look of disgust, Kanghyeok turned his gaze in the other direction and finally spotted a man who fit the bill.
He was a muscular man with a thick beard and tattoos that reached his face.
The man was groping the women seated on either side of him while muttering something, but the music was too loud to hear clearly.
But one word came through faintly.
“Yohan.”
Kanghyeok murmured the word the man had spoken and, while turning his head away, focused his attention on him.
‘Please, let this bastard know where the laptop is.’
Or at least where they stashed the stolen goods.
Just then.
“Gotta take a piss. Don’t you girls go anywhere while I’m gone, or it won’t be fun.”
“Hahaha!”
The man squeezed himself out of his seat and started walking toward the restroom.
Kanghyeok immediately followed him.
Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
The club lights flashed even more intensely, as if urging him to follow the man.
Click.
Kanghyeok followed the man into the restroom and closed the door.
Zip.
He approached the gang member, who was unzipping his fly at a urinal. The man still didn’t think anything was strange.
But when Kanghyeok moved behind him, he turned with a frown.
“What the…”
Before he could finish, Kanghyeok wrapped an arm around the man’s neck.
“Gak, urk!”
Dragging him backward into a toilet stall, Kanghyeok immediately locked the door.
Just after that.
Creek.
The main door opened, and someone else came in.
“Gak, ghk.”
Choked hard, the man’s face turned red as he clawed at Kanghyeok’s arm, but he couldn't even scratch the Kevlar-laced fabric.
Kanghyeok kept the pressure on his neck, just enough to keep him from passing out, and focused his hearing.
The sound of a depressingly weak stream of water.
Footsteps moved away, but disgustingly, there was no sound of hands being washed.
‘Son of a bitch!’
The man hadn't closed the door, so all the noise from the bathroom was spilling out.
“Ghkkeee!”
As the man let out a desperate groan, Kanghyeok focused his hearing even more intently.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump, thump.
Even in the bathroom, the club’s music was audible.
Kanghyeok, concentrating on the music, slammed the man’s head against the wall in time with a heavy drop of the beat.
Thump! Thump!
When the beat paused, he gave the man a moment’s rest. When footsteps approached again, Kanghyeok held his breath and pressed down on the gang member’s Adam’s apple.
Thump.
This one closed the door.
Kanghyeok slightly loosened his grip on the man’s neck and brought his mouth close to his ear.
But the gang member spoke first.
“Do… *choke*… you know… *urgh*… who I am?”
“One of Yohan’s men.”
At the low voice, the gang member’s body flinched.
‘Got the right one.’
Kanghyeok’s voice was laced with anger as he continued.
“Whether you live or die depends on your actions.”
“Ghk, urgh.”
“Where do you keep the stolen goods from the canceled deal with the smugglers?”
“Ghk. What… gang… are you from?”
A brief silence followed.
Then, while still choking the man, Kanghyeok pulled a knife from his coat.
The gang member’s eyes followed the wickedly sharp blade as Kanghyeok gripped it in a reverse hold.
“I’ll ask one more time. Talk.”
The gang member trembled but didn’t answer.
*He wouldn’t really stab me, would he?*
*I’m one of Yohan’s men.*
With such thoughts, the gang member tried to figure out who Kanghyeok was and why he was doing this instead of answering.
“Hah.”
Kanghyeok let out a quiet sigh, his lips twisting.
He tightened his grip on the knife and plunged it into the gang member’s stomach.
Thump! Thump-chka! Thump! Thump!
The timing perfectly matched the heavy beat of the music.