Chapter 116
Chapter 116
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 116
Chapter Title: Like Tangled Tree Roots (1)
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*Clank!*
Kanghyeok flicked the lid open with his thumb, the lighter opening with a crisp sound.
*Flick! Fwoosh.*
Striking the flint wheel, Kanghyeok produced a flickering flame and brought it to the cigarette between his lips. The heat tickled his face as it lit the tip.
*Click.*
He snapped the lighter shut and exhaled smoke, staring straight ahead.
He was in a moving car, the driver's side window rolled down.
The cold wind rushing in whisked the smoke out of the car and cleared his head.
Kanghyeok glanced at his Zippo lighter for a moment.
His eyes were reflected on its mirror-like silver surface.
*I've had this for a long time.*
It was a gift from when he'd first joined the company, and he'd used it until the day he died. The lighter had been with him for nearly half his life.
The reason it still shone was that he occasionally polished its surface while cleaning his guns.
It was the only non-weapon he truly cherished, though funnily enough, he didn't know its model name.
What did it matter?
It was familiar in his hand, an object he'd grown fond of.
As long as he maintained the flint, wick, and lighter fluid, it would last practically forever. He doubted he would ever replace it, not until the day he died again.
*Static.*
The faint static from the comms device in his ear seemed to be telling him to stop staring at his lighter.
(Can you hear me?)
Kanghyeok held the cigarette between his fingers and spoke.
"Any updates?"
(Yes, the civilian evacuation is proceeding smoothly. I've just finished escorting a group and am engaged in additional activities.)
"And Yohan?"
(He has a minor injury on the bridge of his nose, but otherwise, he's fine.)
She seemed to be deliberately omitting the rest.
An injury meant there had been a clash, and "otherwise, he's fine" meant he had survived.
That meant Yohan had killed someone.
*Sizzle.*
Kanghyeok took a long drag from his cigarette, his words mingling with the exhaled smoke.
"...Anything else?"
(We've identified the remote's operating frequency. The source was Jeff Black.)
"You contacted the company, right? Their response?"
(They arrived a little later than Jeff Black. All preparations are now complete.)
*So, what are you going to do?*
That was what Leila's voice seemed to be asking.
"Give me access to the enemy's movements."
(You want to access it directly?)
The surprise in her rising inflection painted a clear picture of her face.
"I need to see for myself."
(Understood. I'll request authorization immediately. It should be processed right away.)
Kanghyeok ended the conversation with a word of thanks, then held his cigarette out the window and tapped off the ash.
He put the cigarette back in his mouth, slowed the car, and pulled out his phone.
[Access Granted.]
Kanghyeok went to the company website, downloaded the necessary application, and installed it.
After passing voice, iris, and fingerprint scans, along with a GPS-based location verification, a screen appeared displaying a map of the entire city.
*What's your next move?*
He had already eliminated one of their rallying points.
He'd found the bombs and the drums of hazardous materials, and he'd seen with his own two eyes how much they valued them.
*The gangs and the bombs are just the means.*
The objective is the hazardous material in the drums.
They were planning to use the explosions to destroy the city and simultaneously spread the hazardous material across it.
It might seem like conjecture.
After all, every one of Iron Mask's men who had infiltrated the city would die too.
But they had never cared about their own lives.
*Grit.*
Having witnessed their tenacity countless times, he instinctively gritted his teeth.
*Sons of bitches.* They had pursued him even on his way to rescue Jeff Black.
That's how relentless and audacious they were.
Would men like that just sit back and do nothing?
Not when one of their rallying points had been wiped out.
*Tap, tap.*
He set the layer to show the enemy's status, set the recording time to twenty minutes, and quickly rewound it.
The focus was on the locations where they had planted the bombs.
*Screech.*
This wasn't something he could watch while driving. He brought the car to a complete stop and let out a thin breath through his teeth.
*They've moved.*
Realizing they'd been attacked when their comms went silent, they had started relocating three minutes ago.
The fact that the closest ones hadn't moved showed they were using their own men as bait.
*Tap, tap.*
His urgency was evident in the way his fingers tapped against the phone, the sound of his nails hitting the screen unusually loud.
Kanghyeok checked the layer again, a corner of his mouth twisting into a smirk.
"Found you."
The direction they were heading and the bombs being supplied from a truck.
They might be planning to blow him away along with everything else in a bigger explosion.
They were meticulous, but they would never imagine, not even in their wildest dreams...
...that Kanghyeok was watching their every move.
That whatever they did, they were in the palm of his hand.
*Screech.*
Wrenching the wheel, Kanghyeok turned the car around and sent the coordinates and a brief order to Leila.
"Hurry up! Move it!"
In front of the truck, one of Iron Mask's men waved his hand frantically.
*Scrape.*
From the canvas-covered cargo bed of the truck came the sound of a wooden crate being dragged.
The crate was marked with a hazard symbol: a yellow triangle containing a bisected circle and jagged, threatening lines.
It was a crate of explosives.
*Scrape. Thud!*
The men standing behind the truck took the crates and, working in pairs, began loading them into cars. Others, armed with rifles, scanned the surroundings with anxious faces.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
Blowing up the roads and unleashing the gangs to throw the city into chaos had gone smoothly. But everything fell apart when one of their preparation sites for the bombs and drums was attacked.
How in the world did he find out?
With no way of knowing how much the enemy knew, the plan had been immediately and completely revised.
*Bang, bang!*
The man pounded on the truck and raised his voice.
"Hurry up! Assemble them faster!"
His voice was laced with the fear that Kanghyeok could attack at any moment.
"Yes, sir!"
The man inside the truck connecting detonators and wireless receivers to the bombs before closing the crates, and the men scurrying to transport them—they all felt the same fear.
"Those of you who are done loading, move to the new locations. We'll control the detonation from here, so report over the radio as soon as you've finished planting them!"
"Yes."
"Understood!"
*Crackle.*
The men checked their radios and started moving toward their respective cars.
"Sss, haa!"
One of the men sucked in a sharp breath and exhaled as if he'd eaten something spicy. The fear in his eyes had subsided a little.
They hadn't eliminated Kanghyeok, destroyed the city, or spread the hazardous material yet.
But the plan was steadily progressing.
Once they detonated the bombs and scattered the hazardous material—their ultimate goal—across the entire city, it would all be over.
The civilians would die, and they themselves wouldn't survive, but Kanghyeok would inevitably die with them.
*We have to finish this before morning, no matter what.*
The man rolled up his sleeve and looked at his wristwatch.
Affected by strong electromagnetic waves, the second hand was just twitching in place, refusing to move forward. The man's brow furrowed as he stared at it.
"Why is this..."
It was then.
*KABOOOOOM!*
The truck burst like a water balloon and shot high into the air.
*BOOM! BOOM!*
One after another, the cars loaded with bombs exploded. The men inside them and those standing guard around the truck were all torn to shreds by the blasts.
*Rumble...*
The fallout rained down, and flaming debris quickly burned away in scattered spots.
The wind blew the smoke away, revealing a scorched landscape that looked as if a meteor had struck. Not a single person was left standing.
"Explosion at the target location confirmed."
"No signs of life. All targets confirmed KIA."
A massive screen that nearly touched the ceiling displayed the city.
In front of it, office workers in suits sat at their keyboards wearing headsets. In an adjacent room, separated by a glass wall, William and other executives were seated around a table, watching the screen.
"The field agent's situational awareness is impressive. He must be under immense pressure during the mission."
"I can't deny he's exceeding expectations."
"And the civilian evacuation is going smoothly."
"Approving Team Leader-level treatment for him seems to have been the right choice."
William nodded in response to the directors' comments, his lips pressed together.
But his face wasn't expressionless.
An almost imperceptible smile played on his lips, and his eyes were filled with pride.
It was William who had scouted the retired Kanghyeok and extended an offer.
These were the same directors who had opposed Kanghyeok's return to the company as a contractor.
Now, they were acknowledging him.
He could feel it without even looking.
The discomfort of some of the executives.
And the intense focus the others had on Kanghyeok.
"Were there any other requests?"
Gary Chang spoke into the microphone. One of the employees beyond the glass wall pressed his headset and replied.
(None, sir.)
Though William's gaze fell on him, Gary Chang kept his eyes fixed on the screen as he spoke.
"Detonate the bombs in the other areas. We need to reduce the risk."
As some of the executives nodded in agreement, William switched on his microphone.
*Beep.*
The gazes of Gary Chang and a few other executives turned to him, but William addressed the employee beyond the window.
"No. Additional detonations are to be executed only upon request."
Gary Chang glared at William, his eyes filled with blatant displeasure.
With the employee caught in the middle looking restless, William continued, his words directed at Gary Chang.
"There must be a reason he only eliminated the bombs in that specific area, even though we've secured the detonation frequency. We will respect the judgment of the agent in the field."
His words were for the employee, but they were also for Gary Chang.
"Indeed, the judgment of the agent on the ground takes precedence."
"That's right. He must have had his reasons."
*Grit.*
Gary Chang ground his teeth as the executives voiced their agreement with William.
William withdrew his attention and gaze from him, issuing another order through the microphone.
"What's the progress on hacking their comms?"
(We're in the final stages.)
Just then, another employee turned to the screen and spoke.
(Hack complete. Displaying it on the screen now.)
On the left side of the screen, a real-time text transcript of Iron Mask's men's radio communications began to scroll up.
"Patch it through to Kanghyeok and Leila. Make sure they can see it immediately."
(Understood.)
William pushed the microphone slightly forward and glanced at Gary Chang out of the corner of his eye.
*Things not going your way, are they?*
Now that their radio traffic was hacked and visible to everyone, Gary Chang looked extremely agitated.
"You look unwell."
Gary Chang pressed his lips together and shook his head at William. William, looking perfectly at ease, crossed his legs and rested his clasped hands on his lap.
*The real beginning is now.*
At a glance, this incident might seem like a simple conflict between Kanghyeok, trying to secure the city with the safe house, and a terrorist group.
But the reality was far more complex.
A power struggle within the company.
The confrontation between the company and Iron Mask.
And at the center of it all, like a tangle of tree roots, was Kanghyeok.
William felt his clasped hands grow damp as he focused his attention on one point on the screen.
A rapidly moving white dot.
It was Kanghyeok, tracking the enemies on the move.