Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: Deep, Deep Night (4)
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Chapter 12, Section 4. Deep, Deep Night (4)
‘Yohan’s men.’
The three men, exuding a rugged air, flinched the moment they saw Kanghyeok. Their eyes darted up and down, checking his attire and race, before they charged at him.
Seeing his hands were empty, they planned to subdue him quickly.
“Die! You son of a bitch!”
It was just after they had fully entered the restroom.
Kanghyeok thrust a hand into his coat.
‘A gun? No, a knife.’
Given the close proximity, Kanghyeok drew a knife instead of a pistol.
The man at the front, seeing the knife, flinched in surprise. Kanghyeok immediately lunged at him, slamming the knife into his stomach as if striking him.
Then, as soon as he pulled the knife out, he slit the man’s throat.
Pshhhk!
Blood erupted like a fountain, spattering the ceiling, and the man collapsed, his mouth agape.
“Y-You bastard!”
Another man drew his gun but hesitated, unable to pull the trigger.
He had come face to face with the one man he’d hoped not to see: Kanghyeok.
He’d come here on a tip.
But he’d honestly wondered if it was really Kanghyeok, and he hadn’t even remotely imagined he’d run right into him without any mental preparation.
But what made him hesitate most was the uncertainty of whether it was okay to use a gun.
They were inside a club run by the gang.
If a shootout erupted in the club, a precious source of income, the resulting chaos would be beyond what a low-ranking gang member like him could handle.
Crack!
As if chiding him for his wandering thoughts, a knife fiercely closed in and embedded itself in his wrist.
Thud.
No sooner had the pistol fallen than a scream erupted from the man’s wide-open mouth.
“Aaargh…!”
Before the scream could echo through the restroom, Kanghyeok’s hand brutally clamped over his mouth.
“Y-Yaaargh!”
The man next to him threw a punch at Kanghyeok.
But Kanghyeok dodged it by ducking, and the fist ended up striking his unfortunate comrade’s jaw.
Thwack!
Kanghyeok pulled his knife out and stabbed the knee of the man who’d been punched. The man’s posture lowered as he shuddered in agony from the knife digging between his bones.
Shlick!
Kanghyeok slit the man’s throat as he straightened up.
“Gack, gack! Gack!”
One man thrashed about, gasping like a fish pulled from water.
Another gurgled, spewing bloody foam.
Only one man remained standing, facing Kanghyeok!
He trembled, his eyes shifting from his two fallen comrades to Kanghyeok. His eyes were filled with terror.
Fight or flight.
He seemed to be debating between the two, but his gaze betrayed a fear of whether he could escape safely.
So, the man pulled a pistol from his pocket.
A pistol whose muzzle trembled so pitifully…
Whack!
Kanghyeok slapped the hand holding the gun aside and drove his knife into the space between the man’s neck and shoulder as he closed the distance.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
He pulled out the knife after successively stabbing the man’s windpipe, chest, solar plexus, and thigh. As blood dripped, connecting the wounds to the knife, the man’s body collapsed as well.
“Hoo, hoo!”
Kanghyeok looked down at the three corpses.
Two had died clutching their necks, while one had died with his face contorted in pain and despair.
All were Yohan’s gang members, and they all shared the common trait of having come here looking for him.
‘How many more like them are beyond this restroom door?’
Leila had said they were swarming, so there were probably quite a few.
Kanghyeok wiped the blood from his face, then pulled a hand towel from the wall to clean the blood from his hands and the knife blade.
Outside, men who would attack on sight were crawling all over the place.
But he had to go out.
To get his laptop back.
And because he wasn’t the least bit afraid of scum like them, he moved without hesitation.
Slam!
Kanghyeok violently threw the door open and thrust a hand into his coat. He felt the silenced automatic pistol, its cool, heavy weight a comfort to his mind.
Step, step.
Heading toward the center of the music-filled club, Kanghyeok slowly pulled his hand from his coat.
In his hand was a pistol.
Leila, who had heard the sounds of Kanghyeok’s fight through her communication device, let out a heavy breath through her nose.
‘This is getting annoying.’
Yohan’s gang was moving more aggressively than expected.
Even now, Yohan’s men were steadily entering the club where Kanghyeok was, and the number of guards at the entrance was gradually increasing.
It was almost as if they were sending all their men here.
Many enemies in a small club.
And limited ammunition.
An environment where he couldn’t fight freely because of the civilians mixed in.
‘Can Kanghyeok get out safely?’
Kanghyeok had suggested she evacuate for now and rendezvous later, but Leila found herself unconsciously looking at the back seat.
The back seat, where the rifle Kanghyeok had left behind lay.
“…”
He might need that.
It would be fortunate if he could slip out, avoiding the eyes of Yohan’s gang members through a combination of luck and skill, but having seen how many of them had gone into the club, she knew just how impossible that was.
Leila slowly closed and opened her eyes.
It was a time that called for a swift decision and a cool-headed judgment.
Just as Leila, having reached a conclusion, started the car’s engine.
A bright light pierced through the heavily tinted windshield, shining on Leila. She shielded her eyes with one hand while trying to pinpoint the source of the light.
“Tsk.”
Vroooom!
A vehicle charged fiercely from the front.
Hearing the harsh engine roar and seeing the high speed, which clearly indicated they were prepared for a collision, Leila firmly engaged the handbrake.
CRASH!
A violent impact shook her body fiercely, and the deployed airbag cushioned her head.
Vroooom!
Another car charged at the side of the SUV.
CRUUUNCH!
The SUV shook pitifully, and the smell of burning rubber filled the air. The attention of everyone on the street was drawn to the scene as Yohan’s men got out of the cars that had struck the SUV.
As if they had intended this situation from the start, they held cutters and crowbars in their hands.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Inside the club, where heavy music and dazzling lights poured down, Kanghyeok blended in with the crowd.
Melding into the crowd as much as possible, he kept a firm grip on his pistol, his eyes alone scanning the club’s interior.
The men guarding the entrance.
Those who discovered the bodies in the restroom and were now moving hastily.
The ones roaming the club, checking faces one by one.
There were a lot of them.
And from their awkward gaits and the positions of their arms, it was clear they were carrying firearms.
Under the cascading lights, Kanghyeok committed all their positions to memory.
Click.
Kanghyeok switched the pistol’s safety off, clenching his jaw so hard the muscles stood out.
Thump! Thump-chka! Thump! Thump!
The club’s music was exciting and the lights were brilliant, but his mood was anything but.
My vision is filled with those who want to kill me.
The ones who stole my belongings are now searching this place, guns in hand, to take my life.
The only means to protect myself from them is this pistol.
But that was fine.
‘Because it’s enough.’
Clink.
Moving inconspicuously, Kanghyeok picked up a liquor bottle from a table where a druggie was slumped over. Keeping his eyes fixed on them, he pretended to lift the bottle to his lips while raising his gun and focusing on the music.
Thump-chka! Thump-chka!
The music mellowed out again.
But it was a track that had been played several times, and Kanghyeok knew a powerful bass line would soon follow.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
As the low-frequency sound, like a heavy drumbeat, erupted from the speakers, he pulled the trigger, aiming at a man who was wandering the club alone, checking people’s faces.
THUMP! Thwack.
The heavy bass masked the remnant of the gunshot that the silencer couldn’t swallow.
Thump.
The gang member, who had been checking on a slumped-over druggie, crumpled to the floor. Kanghyeok continued to move, shifting his aim to another target.
Thump-chka! Thump! Thump! Thwack, thwack.
Two bullets, flying as if seeping through the crowd, brought down two more men.
“Ugh, what the hell.”
The people nearby seemed to think they were just guys who had passed out from drugs or alcohol, reacting with annoyance rather than screams.
Perhaps it was because the intensely cascading red lights concealed the blood.
Kanghyeok kept walking and pulling the trigger.
Thwack, thwack. Click.
He had to change magazines from time to time, and even as the fallen men piled up on the club floor, their backs being stamped by the feet of dancers, he couldn’t relax.
“What’s going on? The guy who went to check isn’t back.”
“Just call him.”
“I already tried. He’s not picking up.”
“Something’s weird. Try contacting the others.”
He had overheard their conversation.
Thump! Chka! Thump! Thump! Thwack, thwack.
Kanghyeok took down the two men who were about to contact the others, then shifted his gaze toward the entrance.
The two he had just dealt with weren’t the only ones who sensed something was wrong.
Others, having noticed the club-goers’ reactions of displeasure towards the fallen men, were either on their phones or gesturing to their comrades, giving some kind of instruction.
It was then.
He felt a gaze on him, and Kanghyeok turned his head in that direction.
A Black man, who appeared to be one of Yohan’s subordinates, was staring at him with large eyes in which the whites were unusually prominent.
He immediately got the attention of his nearby colleagues and pointed at Kanghyeok.
Thump-chka! Thump! Thump!
A group of them began to approach Kanghyeok, roughly shoving people aside.
Kanghyeok glanced at the exit, then scowled and glared at the Black man and the Latino and white men following him.
The exit was blocked by gang members; it might as well not exist.
Step, step.
Kanghyeok walked toward them.
When the distance between them was about three meters, one of the gang members put a phone to his ear.
CRASH!
The liquor bottle Kanghyeok threw smashed spectacularly against his face. Kanghyeok immediately closed in as if to attack, extending his pistol.
Thwack.
Blood burst from the Black man’s head, and the others drew their pistols and knives.
Swoosh!
Just after a menacingly sharp blade grazed dizzyingly past his eyes, Kanghyeok grabbed the man’s hair and pulled him toward his torso.
Then he pressed the muzzle of his gun to the back of the man’s head.
Thwack.
As the man with a hole in the back of his head collapsed, another prepared to take aim at Kanghyeok.
Kanghyeok grabbed the man’s sleeve.
BANG!
The gun in the hand he yanked fired a bullet into the blameless floor.
Thwack, thwack.
Blood spurted from the chest and head of the man hit by the bullets Kanghyeok fired.
Immediately after, screams erupted from all directions.
The gang member’s gunshot had made people realize a shootout was happening in the club, and they began to flee in the opposite direction of the gunfire.
But it was only a small fraction of them; other patrons, high on drugs or alcohol, were still swaying or slumped over, so it didn’t escalate into a major commotion.
Still, it was enough of a disturbance to attract the attention of the gang members searching for Kanghyeok, and it created space as people between Kanghyeok and the gang members he was confronting cleared out.
In the space that had been cleared as if by an eraser, the gang members charged at Kanghyeok.
Thwack, thwack.
A man shot in the chest and face crumpled, his body twitching.
After taking out the distant enemy, Kanghyeok changed his stance, holding the pistol close to his face, and aimed at an approaching man.
Thwack, thwack.
“Aaaaargh!”
The burliest of them, a Latino man, let out a roar and swung his knife.
It was something Kanghyeok couldn’t understand, but there was no need to.
Thwack.
Blood and bone fragments flew from the man’s knee, and his roar instantly turned into a scream.
Thwack.
Kanghyeok silenced him with a shot to the head, then noted the receding crowd and the gang members turning their attention toward him.
They were watching him, and Kanghyeok met their gazes as he changed his magazine.
Screech.
Just then, static came from the speakers, the multicolored lights vanished, and only white lights remained on.
“What? What’s going on?”
“Turn the music back on!”
People muttered and looked up at the ceiling as a gruff male voice came from the speakers.
(We’re closed. Everyone get out.)
Kanghyeok sucked on his lips and looked at the men guarding the exit.
A nasty smile was plastered on their faces.
They looked at him as if to say his rampage was over, and Kanghyeok responded by unscrewing the silencer from his pistol.
A silencer doesn’t just muffle the sound of a gunshot.
It also eats away at the gun’s power.
Who would be the one to die here today?
Any gambler who knew Kanghyeok would never bet their money on the gang.
Even if the gang members were overwhelmingly numerous.
“What?”
“You can’t do this.”
“Shut up and turn the music back on!”
The club-goers, unable to read the atmosphere between Kanghyeok and the nearly fifty gang members, raised their voices. A voice thick with irritation and anger poured from the speakers.
(Get the hell out! You sons of bitches! Now!)
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
One of the gang members fired his gun at the ceiling.
It was a harsh sound that instantly sobered the minds that had been steeped in the club’s music and brilliant lights.
“Aaaah!”
“F-Fine, we’re leaving.”
“Fucking hell, see if I ever come back.”
“Crazy bastards, crazy bastards.”
Except for the people passed out from drugs and alcohol and the corpses, everyone began to move toward the exit, terrified, while spewing complaints.
The gang members let them out one by one, their eyes still fixed on Kanghyeok.
The club slowly began to empty.
People heading for the exit.
And around Kanghyeok, the only one standing stock-still, there was no one.
As more people left, the remaining gang members became more and more visible. As if sifting through a sieve, filtering out the impurities and leaving only the essential grains.
“Ssssp, hooo.”
Kanghyeok inhaled the air, thick with the smell of alcohol, drugs, and blood, then exhaled and readjusted his grip on the pistol.
He had plenty of bullets, and there were things to use for cover.
He also had a Kevlar bulletproof suit to stop bullets.
But the emptiness of the clearing club and the solitude of having to face so many of them alone washed over him.
Would it have been better if he had his rifle?
“Get out! You bastards!”
Glaring at a gang member yelling at the club-goers, Kanghyeok grabbed the edge of a nearby table.
CRASH! SMASH.
He flipped the table, and the glasses and liquor bottles on it spilled and shattered. At the sound, a few people glanced at Kanghyeok.
Kanghyeok then took cover behind the overturned table and extended his arm.
CRACK!
A bullet was fired, its sound and power incomparable to when the silencer was attached.
SPLAT!
With a sound like a skull being crushed, the man guarding the exit slid down the wall and collapsed.