Chapter 128
Chapter 128
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 128
Chapter Title: The Adults' Job
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“What the hell is this kid…”
BANG!
The gang member fell without finishing his sentence.
In that instant, even the gang members who didn't know who Yohan was realized he was anything but ordinary.
The distance between Yohan and the gang member was about twenty meters.
Making a precise shot with a pistol from that distance was an impossible feat, even for them.
(How many are there?)
“A lot. I’d say at least forty.”
Yohan spoke into the comms device in his ear, his eyes and the muzzle of his gun still fixed on the gangsters.
(Do what you can, but don't get hurt. We're almost there. We'll be there soon.)
“Yes.”
After responding to Leila, Yohan immediately turned his gun in another direction.
A gang member who had been stealthily approaching flinched,
BANG!
and was killed instantly by a bullet from Yohan’s pistol that pierced his head.
“Son of a bitch! Get that bastard first!”
As one of them shouted urgently, a Molotov cocktail came flying.
Yohan threw himself to the side, dodging the bottle.
BOOM! WHOOSH!
A wide patch of fire erupted where he had been, flames soaring high. From behind the blaze, Yohan aimed his gun at the approaching gangsters.
BANG, BANG!
He then turned toward an alleyway and broke into a full sprint.
*Tschk!*
“He’s running to the other side! Get him!”
The gangsters relayed Yohan’s position over their radios, cornering him like a rabbit.
*Thud!*
A man waiting at the intersection of the alley and the street lunged at Yohan.
“Ugh!”
Yohan, who had tumbled to the ground with the man, immediately moved the muzzle of his gun to the man’s side.
BANG!
“Gack!”
The gangster, right in his face, bared his yellow teeth and exhaled a foul breath. Yohan shifted his gun under the chin of the man pressing down on him. The gangster flinched, startled, and tried to grab Yohan’s wrist.
BANG!
The gangster died right in front of him.
As the man collapsed, a large hole in the top of his head, a chilling weight fell upon Yohan.
“There he is!”
Other men spotted Yohan and started charging toward him. Yohan shoved the corpse aside and got to his feet.
*RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT!*
A hail of bullets flew from behind, seeming to fill the space around Yohan.
*THWACK!*
“Ugh!”
The bullets slammed into his back one after another, and Yohan was thrown into the air before crashing forward.
“He’s hit!”
“He’s wearing a vest, you idiot! Finish him!”
Yohan planted his clenched fists on the ground.
‘I have to get up.’
The pain was suffocating, and tears welled up in his eyes against his will.
Still, Yohan tried to push himself off the ground.
He could feel the gangsters closing in fast.
But the shock from the impact to his back made his body refuse to obey.
“Grrrraaaah!”
Seeing Yohan struggling to rise, the gangsters slowed their approach.
*Click.*
One of them, who had even pulled out a folding knife, glared at Yohan with menacing eyes. Yohan gritted his teeth and began to crawl away from him.
Just then, a pair of dress shoes entered Yohan’s field of vision.
The feet that had emerged from between the alleys stopped in front of Yohan, and a deep yet gentle voice followed.
“You can rest. This is a job for the adults now.”
Yohan tried to lift his head.
*Fwump!*
But the man draped a jacket over him, obscuring his view.
The strangely heavy feel of the suit jacket was familiar.
It was the same material as what Yohan was wearing now.
The same bulletproof suit that Kanghyeok and Leila wore.
*Rustle.*
Yohan pushed the jacket aside and twisted his torso to look at the man.
*Step, step.*
The middle-aged Hispanic man walking toward the gangsters somehow resembled Kanghyeok.
***
*RAT-A-TAT-TAT! WHIRRRR!*
The MK2 stopped firing its minigun and slowly turned its head.
The living room was a wreck; not a single piece of furniture was intact.
Chairs and a dining table.
A sink and a refrigerator.
Everything was reduced to fragments littering the floor, leaving no apparent place to hide.
*WHIRRR!*
The MK2 spun around, rotating its minigun, but saw only darkness and silence.
*Thump.*
It took a step forward, as if displeased. Hidden behind the living room wall, Kanghyeok covered his mouth and looked down at the hand pressed against his stomach.
An alarmingly large amount of blood was pouring out from between his fingers.
A penetrating wound from the minigun.
If he were to cut open his stomach right now, he probably wouldn't find a single intact organ. Just one bullet had inflicted this much damage.
*Thump, thump.*
Kanghyeok squeezed his eyes shut, listening to the MK2’s receding footsteps as cold sweat beaded on his skin.
The healing was slow.
To be precise, the regeneration was slow.
But it was definitely happening.
The bleeding, which had seemed endless, was gradually subsiding, and the excruciating pain was becoming bearable.
*Crrrk, crrrunch! Crk!*
He could feel his torn liver and stomach slowly knitting back together.
He could also feel the damaged blood vessels reconnecting and the hole in his muscle closing up.
*Ssssp.*
Taking a deep breath through his nose, Kanghyeok removed his hand from the wound.
Blood trickled down like water from a loosely turned-off faucet, but it was a manageable level.
‘How much time has passed?’
*WHIRRR! RAT-A-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!*
The sound of the minigun firing wildly near the warehouse echoed, as if demanding he come out.
“Heh.”
Strangely, he felt a laugh escape him.
It must be getting impatient.
The PES that powered the MK2's movements was a prototype still in development.
Its operational time would be short, yet it had been moving this whole time on a battery with an immense capacity.
But it couldn't move forever.
Batteries had clear physical limitations, and the MK2's operational time was steadily ticking away with every passing moment.
And when that time came?
Kanghyeok let out a soft laugh.
For a moment, he had entertained the thought that the machine might stop moving altogether.
‘That's not likely.’
Instead, its movements would become slower than they were now, and its strength would likely be extremely diminished.
*Squish.*
Kanghyeok probed the hole in his abdomen with a finger. The deepest part had already sealed.
This was enough. He could fight without any problem.
‘I need to hurry.’
If he just waited for the battery to die, the MK2 might call for helicopter support.
If that happened, this fight could end with the machine simply retreating, without a proper conclusion.
Determined to avoid such an unsatisfying outcome, Kanghyeok stepped out toward the kitchen.
The living room was a disaster.
And in it, one thing had remained untouched, catching Kanghyeok’s eye.
The gas stove.
Gazing at the stove, which strangely captivated his attention and thoughts, Kanghyeok slowly turned his head in the direction of the MK2.
A way to end this fight—cleanly, yet in the most hellish way possible—had just occurred to him.
***
*Step, step.*
As the man walked toward the gangsters, they hesitated.
A white dress shirt with a black tie.
Black suit pants and dress shoes.
The man was dressed like an ordinary office worker, but the problem was that this projected a strange, chilling aura.
In this city, anyone who wore a suit was a monster.
Kanghyeok and Leila.
And even Yohan, who, despite his shortcomings, had displayed a high level of combat prowess for his age.
They didn't even entertain the possibility that this middle-aged Hispanic man might be an ordinary person.
His full, thick muscles were not concealed by his dress shirt.
They became even more defined when the wind blew, resembling those of a highly trained soldier, and the numerous scars on the back of his hands looked like those of a man who had seen countless battlefields.
But the most decisive factors were the black pistol in the man’s hand and the knife sheathed at his waist.
“Who are you.”
A gangster asked, his voice taut with tension.
*CRACK!*
The man’s pistol fired, and the gangster’s head snapped back.
“Shit!”
Another gangster hastily raised his gun toward the man but couldn't pull the trigger.
*BANG!*
One bullet hit him in the chest.
*BANG!*
The second hit him in the head.
His way of handling a gun was so damn similar to Kanghyeok’s that the other gangsters didn't even think of fighting back and turned to flee.
*BANG, BANG!*
Blood spurted from the back and the back of the head of the first one to turn his back.
“Dammit!”
A hole appeared between the eyes of another who had turned with a pale face.
Amidst the chaos, there was one who ran on, not even glancing at his fallen comrades.
He was the only surviving gangster, one whose will to live was stronger than anyone else's.
*Shing!*
The man drew the knife from his waist, holding it precariously by the very end of the handle.
Then, he threw it.
Despite the considerable distance, the knife rotated exactly half a turn, its tip pointing toward the gangster.
*THWACK!*
The knife hit its mark with a dull thud, like a baseball hitting a bat.
“Gack, gack.”
The man, after confirming the knife protruding from above his Adam’s apple with his fingertips, rolled his eyes back and collapsed.
“Over here!”
Three men who belatedly burst out of the alley,
their faces filled with murderous intent, froze in their tracks upon seeing the dead gangsters and the man.
The man looked at them, pulled a grenade from his pocket, and pulled the pin.
*Ping!*
The safety clip flew off, but the man didn't throw the grenade right away.
He threw it only after calculating the distance to the men and the time it would take for the grenade to travel.
*KABOOM!*
It was a grenade with reduced destructive power, designed for indoor combat.
Even so, exploding at the gangsters' eye level, it was more than enough to blow all of their heads off.
*Step, step.*
The man walked over to the corpse and pulled out his knife.
He then wiped the blood from the blade, sheathed it, and shifted his gaze to Yohan.
Yohan was sitting on the ground, watching the man. The man met his eyes and put a cigarette to his lips.
*Click-click, fwoosh.*
He lit it with a lighter, putting his other hand in his pocket.
He then silently observed Yohan for a moment before shaking his head and exhaling a plume of smoke.
Just then.
(Have you arrived?)
The man acknowledged Leila’s voice coming through his earpiece and spoke.
“Yeah. Is this kid Yohan?”
(It seems you’ve already met.)
“He was wearing our clothes. I have a lot to say, but I'll hold my tongue.”
Yohan flinched and removed the suit jacket the man had draped over him as Leila’s voice continued.
(I'll explain later. About the civilian rescue…)
*Hooo!*
The man exhaled smoke and brought the cigarette back to his mouth.
“They're already on the move. Snipers are in position, and escape routes are being blocked.”
(I see.)
“I'll be joining them. It should all be over in the next seven to ten minutes.”
(I'm sorry to bother you when you must be busy.)
“It’s company business. Don’t worry about it.”
(Then I'll see you in one minute.)
“Let’s meet in front of the supermarket.”
The man extinguished his cigarette and walked over to Yohan.
He then picked up the jacket he had placed over Yohan and put it on, ruffling Yohan’s hair once.
His gaze was like that of an uncle looking at his nephew.
“Excuse me.”
The man, who was about to leave, turned back to look at Yohan.
Yohan’s expression was full of unasked questions.
The man smiled silently, crinkling the corners of his eyes and face, and placed a fresh cigarette on his lips.
“The name’s Santiago Martis.”
“What’s your relationship… to Kanghyeok?”
*Click! Fwoosh!*
Santiago lit his cigarette and answered.
“Let’s just say I’m his senior at work.”
A Team Leader, one of the key figures at the company.
He was the one Vice President Cohen had sent to this city as support.