Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Closing In
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The moment the knife sank in, the gang member’s body jolted like a train car lurching. His wide eyes trembled in shock, and blood slowly began to seep from the wound.
So what if I avoided a vital spot?
Being stabbed is a completely different sensation from being punched or beaten with a club.
The feeling of a foreign object entering your body.
The impact doesn't just stay on the surface; it burrows deep inside.
Skin tears, subcutaneous fat splits, and muscle rends. When the blade reaches the organs, an indescribable agony lingers around the wound for a moment before spreading throughout the entire body.
“Ghk, uhk.”
The shock of being stabbed by a knife he never thought would be used, and the pain it delivered.
It was an agony unbearable for anyone who hadn't experienced it.
So much so that he couldn't even scream properly.
*Thump-ch! Thump! Thump! Thump!*
The music’s beat grew simpler, yet heavier.
“Speak.”
Kanghyeok demanded an answer in a low voice, but the gang member could only make gasping sounds, unable to reply.
Kanghyeok’s eyes narrowed as the man let out a deflating hiss and curled his torso.
It was right after that.
Kanghyeok tightened his grip on the gang member’s neck and twisted the knife buried in his stomach.
*Grind.*
“Kiiiiih.”
As the gang member let out a groan, Kanghyeok spoke again, his voice right next to the man’s ear.
“Don’t speak.”
Even while being choked, the gang member tried to look back at Kanghyeok, but he couldn’t move his head. He could only turn his fear-soaked eyes, catching a glimpse of Kanghyeok’s hair and a sliver of his body.
*Schlick!*
Kanghyeok pulled the knife out, and the gang member writhed in pain.
“Guuuh!”
*Drip, drip.*
As blood poured from the gang member's stomach, Kanghyeok opened his mouth.
“I told you not to speak.”
The gang member felt a profound confusion amidst the fear and pain.
‘Why?’
He must be doing this because there’s information he wants.
But he’s telling me not to speak.
Though his mind was clouded with pain, one ominous thought surfaced.
Perhaps, to this man threatening him, he wasn't such an essential source after all.
*Thump-ch! Thump-ch!*
Ignoring his state, the music flowing in was just damn exciting.
And out there, in the club where that music was playing, were plenty of Yohan’s other men.
Men who could replace him…
*Stab!*
“Guhhhk!”
This time, the knife found the gang member’s thigh.
The blade, having torn through thick muscle, dripped crimson blood before the man’s eyes. He could feel Kanghyeok’s movements through his back.
Kanghyeok was moving the knife.
Toward the gang member’s face.
As the sharp tip of the knife approached his retina, the gang member’s body trembled violently. Kanghyeok spoke, his voice colder than ever.
“I’ll give you one last chance. Speak.”
The tip of the knife moved slowly, but surely, toward his eye.
The experience of having already been stabbed.
The knowledge that Kanghyeok was a man who could, and would, stab someone.
The realization that he might not be that important to Kanghyeok, and that there were plenty of other gang members outside the bathroom.
Above all, his imagination, working with cruel intensity, conjured the image of a knife piercing his eye and digging into his brain.
“Gh, guuuh.”
Sensing that this was truly his last chance, the gang member parted his trembling lips.
(Valvano Abandoned Hospital on 5th Street! The warehouse on 12th Street! The one with the yellow roof!)
Leila heard the gang member's voice through the communication device and gave a small nod. She saved the locations on her phone and sent them to headquarters via text.
*Buzz!*
[Understood. We will contact you if any threats are detected.]
Leila typed a reply with her thumbs.
Just as she was about to send the message, a strange feeling washed over her.
A danger her instincts were screaming about.
Leila lifted only her eyes to look through the front windshield.
Through the dark tint and the dim streetlights, she couldn’t see clearly, but a man was watching her black car from the direction of the club.
He was even on the phone.
It was a starkly different reaction from someone merely curious about a luxury vehicle.
Just then, the man raised his phone toward the SUV Leila was in, as if to take a picture.
“Tsk.”
The ominous feeling intensified. No sooner had Leila clicked her tongue than a flash went off from the man’s phone.
That confirmed it.
Leila immediately reached for the communication device in her ear.
“Kanghyeok, you should get out of there. Now.”
Someone was tracking the car she was in.
The likely suspect was Yohan.
He had clearly unleashed his hounds to hunt down her and Kanghyeok.
***
Valvano Abandoned Hospital on 5th Street.
In a hospital room with cracked floor tiles and shelves cluttered with junk, Yohan rubbed his bearded chin.
It was quite late, but his eyes were more alive than ever.
Kanghyeok’s stolen laptop.
He had finally realized the nature of the Bitcoin it contained.
“What are you going to do now?”
His closest subordinate asked in a tense voice. Yohan’s lips twisted into a sly smirk as he spoke.
“I’ve already made my move.”
The first thing Yohan did after confirming the cryptocurrency was to begin the process of making it entirely his own.
The elimination of Kanghyeok.
“Will the boys be okay?”
“They’re just a bunch of guys I scraped together. Who cares if they die?”
Yohan didn’t completely understand Bitcoin.
He only knew it was worth money.
An asset that, like stocks, could increase in value.
It had gone up 15 percent today alone.
Was this what it felt like to acquire an entire farm of geese that lay golden eggs?
“But if bad rumors spread, it’ll be hard to recruit people.”
Yohan burst out laughing at his subordinate.
“Pfft-hahaha! You idiot! What does it matter if bad rumors spread? With this kind of money, I can do anything!”
He could buy out a nearby gang entirely. He could buy this entire district.
He’d still have money left over.
‘Who the hell is that bastard, anyway?’
It was too much money for any single individual to possess.
More importantly, there was the man’s skill.
If he truly eliminated all those gang members by himself, as the pot-bellied man had said, then he was a formidable fighter. A man like that couldn’t be left alive.
Just imagine.
Waking up one morning to find Kanghyeok pressing the barrel of a gun to your forehead.
He didn't want to experience that.
“We got a call from the boys.”
Yohan nodded, putting a cigarette in his mouth. His subordinate lit it for him and continued.
“They found a black car at the club that seems to be his. I’ve sent the guys over there now.”
“All of them?”
“Yes.”
“Tell them this: kill the bastard, and I’ll give them twenty thousand dollars and ownership of the club.”
They would probably go insane trying to kill Kanghyeok.
He had armed them well in preparation for a war with another gang. Unless God himself was on the man’s side, there was no way Kanghyeok would live to see tomorrow.
*Fwooh!*
Yohan exhaled a long stream of smoke and looked up at the filthy hospital ceiling.
A long silence followed.
Gazing at the ceiling with deep eyes as if retracing his memories, Yohan lowered his shortened cigarette and curled one corner of his mouth.
“Fuck, this is fun.”
“What is, sir?”
Yohan dropped the cigarette on the floor and met his subordinate’s eyes.
“Everything.”
Confusion spread across the subordinate's face. Yohan looked at him, his eyes curved like crescent moons.
Was it because of the sudden influx of massive wealth?
Right now, Yohan felt like everything was distant from him.
Smoking a cigarette in this shabby, abandoned hospital, his men moving to eliminate Kanghyeok, even looking at the subordinate he had been with for so long.
“I don’t know why I have to be doing this.”
The subordinate’s confusion deepened. Yohan reached for Kanghyeok’s laptop.
Then he tucked it under his arm as if it were his own.
“Where are you going?”
“Bring me that red box over there.”
The subordinate’s gaze followed Yohan’s finger.
It was pointed at a red box on a shelf. It was just for storing miscellaneous junk; there was nothing of value in it.
‘Why that…?’
Though puzzled, the subordinate faithfully followed the order.
He approached the shelf and was about to reach for the box.
*Click-clack.*
The sound of a gun being loaded made the subordinate whirl around to face Yohan.
It was right after that.
*BANG!*
All strength drained from his body, and the subordinate collapsed.
The pain came a beat later.
“Gah, gaaah!”
Crimson blood gushed between the fingers of the subordinate, who was clutching his shot stomach.
Yohan looked down at him, his face contorted but his eyes asking a question, and shifted the muzzle of the gun.
This time, it was aimed at the subordinate’s head.
“Why, why…”
*BANG!*
After pulling the trigger, Yohan shoved the pistol into his pocket and looked out the window.
“Don’t feel too bad. You just couldn’t be left alive.”
Outside the window, a deep darkness had fallen, but he could glimpse a ray of hope.
‘Let’s leave this place.’
If he offered up a portion of the Bitcoin, he could probably secure a significant position.
Not as the boss of a small gang in some backwater abyss, but as a proper executive in a real gang, living a stylish life.
Kanghyeok would die fighting his men.
Indifferent to his men’s fate, Yohan headed out of the abandoned hospital with the laptop tucked under his arm.
*Beep-beep!*
His unlocked car flashed its headlights brightly, as if welcoming him.
*Whoosh!*
After washing the blood from his hands in the sink, Kanghyeok raised his gaze to the communication device in the mirror’s reflection.
“What is it? What do you mean, I should get out?”
(People are gathering at the club. They look like Yohan’s gang.)
Kanghyeok turned his head to look at the toilet stall.
The door was closed, but a pool of red blood had seeped out from the space underneath. It was the blood that had poured out from the corpse he had seated on the toilet.
‘Did they find out about me?’
He had a rough idea of how they might have found him.
There were more than a few clues.
His formal suit, which stood out too much here.
The high-end SUV, rarely seen in this area.
He had left over thirty bodies at the pub, and they were only finding him now. For a gang, they were somewhat competent, but with 120 men at their disposal, they should have been faster.
(The main entrance is dangerous.)
“Why?”
(People are gathering there. You’ll have to find another way out.)
*Vroom.*
The faint sound of a car engine came through the communication device.
“Evacuate first and send me your location. I’ll meet you there.”
(Understood.)
“And the locations that guy gave you earlier…”
(I’ll have HQ monitor them.)
Kanghyeok gave a small nod and headed for the bathroom door. Beyond it was the club he had entered and walked through without any issue just moments ago.
But things were a little different now.
Gang members had entered this club looking for him, and stepping through this door meant walking right into their midst.
Was this what it felt like to step into a den of cockroaches?
Kanghyeok stared at the door, then reached for the handle.
It was right after that.
*BAM!*
The door, kicked open from the other side, flew toward him. Kanghyeok took a step back, dodging it.
And then, Kanghyeok came face-to-face with the men who had just burst in.