Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Mayhem at the Hospital
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Kanghyeok and Leila felt a faint tremor in the air.
They were near the hospital, racing against the target vehicle.
Leila opened her laptop and checked a message from headquarters.
“Unidentified frequency detected. I’ve requested an analysis.”
Kanghyeok gritted his teeth, his voice lower than usual as he asked a question.
“Location?”
“The hospital.”
She’d requested the analysis, but it was just to be certain.
Kanghyeok and Leila already had a good idea what the frequency was.
The detonation signal for a bomb.
“This isn’t a good situation.”
Kanghyeok remained silent at Leila’s murmur.
Though he said nothing, his eyes affirmed her words.
The target vehicle hadn't arrived yet.
That meant the bomb had already been planted in the hospital, and the ones with the detonator were inside as well.
Nobody’s men were in the hospital.
*‘They’re indoors, so we can’t get a headcount via satellite.’*
Leila rubbed the corner of her mouth.
Her gaze grew deep and sharp as if searching her memory; she was recalling what Nobody had said.
*‘Is there someone backing him?’*
The scale of this operation was getting too big.
Too big to be the work of a mere gang.
Even if their opponents were former special forces, their equipment and movements were beyond the scope of a typical gang.
She couldn’t be sure, but Leila suspected there was an organization backing Nobody.
*Vroooooom!*
As the hospital drew closer, the engine roared louder, and Leila pushed her thoughts aside.
Now was the time for action, not speculation.
“I have a favor to ask.”
“Go on.”
“I’ll take backup. Please don’t refuse this time.”
Kanghyeok replied, his eyes fixed on the road ahead.
“I’m going in alone.”
He had a rough idea of what was about to happen, and he would need Leila’s help.
“Understood.”
“What equipment do you need?”
Leila glanced toward the trunk and answered.
“I already have it.”
At the same time.
“Aaaah!”
“An explosion! Call the police!”
“Stay calm! Evacuate the patients first!”
The hospital was filled with chaos.
There were no doctors in clean, crisp white coats to be found. Only doctors in dust-covered coats with disheveled hair, running around as if in the middle of a warzone.
*Rumble, rumble.*
A janitor in a uniform walked down the hallway, pushing a mop bucket on wheels with a mop sticking out of it.
On the opposite side from where the bomb went off.
Where the intensive care unit was located.
*Splash.*
The janitor reached into the dirty water.
When his hand emerged, stirring the water like soup, it held a pistol meticulously wrapped in plastic.
After unwrapping it, he entered the ICU, where nurses and doctors busy helping with the evacuation spotted him.
“You, what…”
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
He fired indiscriminately at them and the patients who had difficulty moving, then pulled out a radio in the now silent, blood-soaked ICU.
“This is the ICU. Clear.”
*(Director’s office. Clear.)*
*(Consultation room. Clear.)*
Nobody’s subordinate, disguised as a janitor, looked at his watch and spoke.
“Reinforcements arriving in one minute. Proceed as planned.”
*(Roger.)*
He put down the radio, his expression calm.
The job had only just begun.
The real work would start after the reinforcements arrived.
They would block the front and back entrances of the hospital and kill everyone trying to escape.
Meanwhile, the men inside would systematically find and eliminate people from within.
It was madness.
But even this was just groundwork for what was to come tomorrow.
The collapse of the healthcare system.
It was all just a preliminary step to ensure the countless injured to come would die beneath the ashes.
Nobody’s man stared out the window with emotionless eyes.
A familiar car was approaching the front of the hospital.
He picked up his radio again and brought it to his mouth.
“Reinforcements have arrived. Begin the operation.”
It was then.
*Vroooooom!*
A deep, loud engine sound, rapidly approaching from a distance, caught his attention.
It was Kanghyeok’s car.
*Vroooom!*
“Brace for impact.”
Leila nodded, gripping her seatbelt tightly.
Kanghyeok slammed his foot on the accelerator.
*VROOOOAAAAAR!*
The engine let out a roar as the car accelerated even faster.
The wind, hitting like a wall, pressed his car low to the ground, and Kanghyeok rammed squarely into the van’s right rear wheel.
*CRASH!*
Kanghyeok’s car shot under the van as it was thrown into the air by the impact. The van was sent tumbling, rolling over several times to its left before coming to a stop with its passenger-side door facing the sky.
*Screeeech!*
Leaving dark tire marks on the pavement, the car screeched to a halt, and Kanghyeok got out.
Around his waist was a belt full of magazines, in his hand an assault rifle, and on his body, holsters for a pistol and a kukri.
*Click-clack!*
Kanghyeok loaded the rifle and immediately aimed at the overturned van.
*Clang!*
The passenger door rattled, then stopped moving at the sound of a gunshot. Kanghyeok approached, keeping the car to his right.
Then he switched the selector to full auto.
*Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!*
Their van wasn’t bulletproof.
Bullets tore through the exposed roof, punching holes like an awl with every hit.
Even as blood and screams poured from the holes, Kanghyeok didn’t take his finger off the trigger.
*Click!*
Once the magazine was empty, Kanghyeok reloaded while looking up at the hospital.
Chaos and commotion.
The silhouettes of people rushing through the hallways were visible through the windows.
And he could also see some of them looking down at him from the windows.
“Nobody’s men are inside the hospital.”
Leila’s voice came through his earpiece.
*(Understood. I’ll proceed as planned.)*
*Thump.*
Leila got out of the car, pulled a large bag from the trunk, and moved quickly.
Leila moved in the opposite direction from Kanghyeok, who started walking toward the hospital.
*Crack!*
A gunshot rang out, a clear warning not to approach.
Concrete fragments chipped away near Kanghyeok, and his gaze and the muzzle of his rifle shifted.
Toward the source of the shot.
*Click. Crack!*
The man who had fired a pistol at Kanghyeok from the window crumpled like a machine that had lost power, spattering blood on the glass.
Kanghyeok continued walking toward the hospital.
He felt strangely foul.
*Clack!*
So much so that a raw emotion seeped into the way he checked his weapon.
Kanghyeok couldn’t understand his own feelings.
Was it because of their plan to indiscriminately slaughter civilians?
Or because they had attacked a hospital?
That couldn’t be it.
Kanghyeok thought back to his past self.
He had focused solely on the mission, minimizing civilian casualties only because of company regulations, but he had never taken their deaths to heart.
*Then why am I so angry?*
Because they were Nobody’s men, the ones who had murdered the landlady?
No, that was part of it, but there was definitely another reason.
*Rat-tat-tat-tat!*
Gunshots and screams echoed from inside the hospital.
People poured out like popcorn popping out of a frying pan, with Nobody’s men visible behind them.
Kanghyeok stopped walking and shouldered his rifle.
He was the only one standing still amidst the crowd, his weapon visible.
The gang members who had been about to shoot the fleeing people naturally turned their attention to Kanghyeok, their muzzles swinging toward him.
*Thud-thud!*
Two consecutive gunshots.
“Aaaaaah!”
The people’s screams grew louder, but it was because of the bullets Kanghyeok had fired.
*Thwack!*
The gang member, shot through the chest and head, collapsed, and Kanghyeok immediately turned his rifle on another.
*Rat-tat-tat!*
Kanghyeok’s shots overlapped with the man’s.
*Thwip! Thwack!*
The man’s bullets only struck the ground around Kanghyeok.
As the gang member fell, his finger squeezed the trigger, spraying bullets toward the sky. Kanghyeok swapped magazines and drew his pistol.
“Aaaaaah!”
People screamed and ducked, running past him on both sides.
Thanks to them, he was starting to understand.
Why he was so angry.
There was something about these men that overlapped with another memory.
The bastards who had slaughtered survivors in the ruined future.
The ones who had destroyed the world.
The people they had murdered had screamed in terror, just like the people around Kanghyeok now.
These bastards had carelessly stirred a powerful memory he could never forget, no matter how much he wanted to.
Entering the hospital, Kanghyeok checked both sides of the chillingly empty hallway.
*Click.*
He heard the faint sound of a fire selector being switched and immediately moved in that direction.
*Slam!*
Suddenly, a door next to him burst open, and a man jumped out.
*Crack!*
Holding the pistol close to his chest, Kanghyeok shot the man in the torso,
*Crack!*
He then blew away the head of the man providing backup from behind,
“Guuuhk!”
He grabbed the hair of the first man, who was about to collapse, and forced him back up.
*BOOM!*
A shotgun blast from a blind spot hit both Kanghyeok and the gang member.
“Gh!”
Pain flared in his back, shoulder, and forearm. Kanghyeok gritted his teeth and turned his gun on the new enemy.
*Crack!*
Then he pressed the muzzle of his pistol against the back of the head of the man whose hair he still held.
*Crack!*
“Hoo! Hoo.”
*(Are you all right?)*
Hearing his pained breaths, Leila spoke up.
Kanghyeok waited for the pain to subside, scanning his surroundings for any other enemies.
“It grazed me.”
He then touched his arm and shoulder where he’d taken a direct hit.
*(Sounds like you’re fine, then.)*
It seemed Leila hadn’t yet reached a position where she could see him.
Knowing she couldn’t see him, Kanghyeok nodded anyway and picked up the pump-action shotgun from the floor.
He didn’t know how many of Nobody’s men were in this hospital.
Dammit, the men who had just attacked him were all dressed differently.
One in a doctor’s coat.
One in a janitor’s uniform.
And even a bastard in a patient’s gown!
With disguises like these, there was no way to tell who was an enemy until you saw their gun.
*Thud.*
Just then, he heard footsteps.
Kanghyeok loaded a shell into the shotgun and pressed his back against the wall next to the door.
*Helpful bastards!*
Anyone deliberately coming toward the sound of gunfire couldn’t possibly be a civilian.
“Hooo.”
Kanghyeok steadied his breath, and then—
*BOOM!*
He blasted the shotgun at the leg of someone entering the doorway.
“Gyaaaah!”
He quickly scanned the man clutching his shredded thigh and the others around him.
*‘Six of them.’*
Since they were being so helpful, he hoped they’d do him one more favor.
*‘Please let this be all of them.’*
Kanghyeok shoved the neck of the man he’d just shot with the shotgun.
“Guk, keok.”
The man stumbled back, tangling with the one behind him. Kanghyeok got a proper grip on the shotgun and pulled the trigger.
*BOOM!*
Blood burst from both men’s heads simultaneously.
The sound of the shotgun blast echoed loudly in the narrow hallway as the remaining men shouldered their weapons and began to advance.
The distance between them was three meters.
*BOOM!*
Even a poorly aimed shotgun blast was enough to blow a head off at this range.
*BOOM! BOOM!*
With each pull of the trigger, a gang member’s head snapped back like a firecracker going off.
Three men were dead.
The last one standing met Kanghyeok’s gaze and hesitated.
Fight or flight.
He wavered, unable to choose.
Then, he made his decision.
“Damn it, damn it!”
He turned and ran.
*Click.*
Kanghyeok loaded another shell into the shotgun.
Realizing the gun had been empty, the man looked back at Kanghyeok, his eyes filled with a mixture of panic and regret. But it was too late to change his mind.
*Clack.*
Kanghyeok finished reloading and aimed the shotgun at the man’s face.
*BOOM!*
The man’s head snapped back as if kicked by a soccer player at full force, and he collapsed.