Chapter 38
Chapter 38
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Who You're Dealing With
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Vroooom!
Yohan’s eyes shifted to the road rushing toward them.
The familiar city receded behind them, and an unfamiliar road drew closer.
Yohan, who had never once left the city he was born and raised in, felt as if the darkness of the road was about to swallow him whole.
“Where are we going?”
“There's a hotel a little far from here.”
Yohan pressed his lips together firmly.
He had a feeling that if he went to that hotel, he would never return to this city, and he would never see Kanghyeok and Leila again.
“Rest there. I'll come get you when this is over.”
Her tone and voice, like she was speaking to a younger brother, made Yohan look at Leila with wide eyes.
“Why?”
“No, it's just… Thank you.”
Leila let out a small laugh and said,
“Save your thanks for Kanghyeok. None of this would have happened if it weren't for him.”
Yohan flinched again, hesitating for a long moment, his lips moving silently, before he managed to speak.
“But… are there other people?”
“Other people?”
“You said there were a lot of people at the hospital. Si—no, Kanghyeok is alone, so how…”
“Haha!”
Leila couldn't help but laugh.
Then, she wiped the smile from her lips and met Yohan's gaze.
“You don't need to worry.”
As Yohan looked on in confusion, Leila continued.
“He's not the kind of person to die in a place like that.”
Her voice was filled with a conviction that went beyond mere belief.
No matter if their opponents were a gang trained by former special forces members, it couldn't surpass the training and real combat experience Kanghyeok had endured.
Besides, Leila had heard, seen, and experienced it herself.
She had already witnessed Kanghyeok moving perfectly fine even after a grenade exploded nearby.
It was an event that could only be described as divine intervention, something that made you believe not even death could bring him down.
A man like that wouldn't be killed by a gang.
Especially now that Yohan's safety, which had been weighing on Kanghyeok's chest like a lead weight, was secured.
Vroooooom!
Leila drove the sports car toward a hotel where she could guarantee Yohan's safety.
And at that moment,
Click.
Having ejected the pistol's magazine and replaced it with a new one, Kanghyeok climbed the stairs to the second floor.
He said nothing, his expression unchanging.
But his steps and his back seemed somehow lighter.
Much lighter than before he entered this hospital.
Clack.
Kanghyeok swung his rifle forward and set the selector to full auto. His pistol was holstered on his chest, ready to be drawn at any moment.
Leila had told him.
The remaining enemies were holed up in a hospital room at the end of the second-floor hallway.
Wipe them out, and the battle in the hospital would be over. It would also be the first step in shattering Nobody's plan for mass slaughter.
Dealing with them wouldn't be a problem.
Therefore, the outcome was as good as decided.
How would Nobody feel when all the men he sent to the hospital were dead?
Would he still be spouting that carefree nonsense about coming to find me?
Or would he be filled with rage, hell-bent on killing me?
Kanghyeok let out a short laugh, then immediately wiped the smile from his face.
He couldn't care less what Nobody was thinking.
But that bastard needed to know this.
Who he was dealing with right now.
What kind of emotions were held in his heart as he prepared to pull the trigger.
Thud.
As he neared the hospital room, Kanghyeok stopped.
He glared at the room at the end of the hall and placed his palm on the floor.
It wasn't clean, but it was smooth and cool to the touch.
No matter how cheap, marble floors were always good.
Good enough that he wished he could tile every battlefield in the world with marble.
The men inside showed no sign of movement.
They made no sound.
But the faint vibrations they created traveled through his palm.
Even their emotions.
It wasn't a superpower.
Anyone could do it with enough training.
And one didn't need special training to discern the psychology of men moving around in disarray like this.
‘Panic and fear.’
The men Kanghyeok had killed had radios in their vests or pockets.
They must have figured it out by now.
That they were the only ones of Nobody's men left alive, and that there was nowhere to run.
And therefore, that they had no choice but to fight.
Kanghyeok glared at the room, rose to his feet, and approached it with his index finger on the rifle's trigger.
There were twelve of them in total.
Armed with rifles and pistols.
But it didn't matter.
Positioning himself diagonally across from the door, Kanghyeok set his rifle to full auto. Then, he aimed for where their heads would be.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Bullets tore through the door, sweeping into the room, and an immediate response followed.
Rat-tat-tat! Bang! Pow! Pow!
The bullets, predictably, flew straight ahead.
The wall, a short distance from where Kanghyeok had been standing, was riddled with gunfire. Kanghyeok swapped magazines and repeatedly squeezed and released the trigger.
Rat-tat! Rat-tat! Rat-tat!
He aimed at the end of the bullets' trajectory.
Where the heads of the men hiding inside the room would be.
Thwack! Thud!
The sound of men falling.
“Aaargh!”
A bloodcurdling scream from someone grazed by a bullet filled the hallway.
Clack, click.
Shouldering his rifle, Kanghyeok changed the magazine and peered into the room through the destroyed door.
Who was it that said?
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
The men inside the room also saw Kanghyeok through the broken door, but they didn't look like a terrifying abyss.
On the contrary, they wore faces full of terror, like men sinking into one.
Bang!
Kanghyeok took precise aim between the eyes of a man looking at him and fired.
The man fell without a scream, and Kanghyeok moved toward the room, pulling the trigger.
Bang! Bang!
A man inside who was about to shoot scrambled for cover as bullets flew at him.
Careful not to trip over the bodies lying near the door, Kanghyeok entered the room completely.
Seven men left.
Four of them were close, while the other three had their backs pressed against the wall.
“Uwaaaah!”
A man with a pistol charged forward, screaming.
Whoops!
But he slipped on a pool of blood and tumbled onto a corpse. Kanghyeok fed his head a bullet.
Bang!
Immediately after, a hail of bullets rained down.
Bang! Bang! Thwack! Thud! Rat-tat-tat!
Concrete dust and fragments exploded from the bullet-riddled wall like a shotgun blast. Kanghyeok clutched his rifle and threw himself out of the room.
Then, recalling the positions of the men he had just seen, he stuck only his rifle back into the room.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
“Gah!”
“Aaargh!”
Two men down.
Thump, thump, thump.
Hearing the approaching footsteps, Kanghyeok took a hand off his rifle and reached inside his jacket. Feeling the weight of the rifle hanging from its sling, he pushed himself up.
In that brief moment, his hand emerged from his jacket, holding a pistol.
A hand holding a pistol shot out, aimed at Kanghyeok's head.
Bang!
Ducking under the man's arm, Kanghyeok grabbed his wrist and pulled.
Pow!
He immediately shot the man behind him in the head,
Pow!
then shot the man whose wrist he held,
Clack! Pow!
and shot the man pressed against the wall in the chest and head.
The last two men charged simultaneously, as if they had resigned themselves to death.
Clack! Clack!
One of the charging men fell, and the other, glancing at his fallen comrade with fear-filled eyes, extended his pistol-wielding hand toward Kanghyeok.
His finger was halfway through pulling the trigger, a bullet about to be fired.
Kanghyeok threw his pistol with all his might.
Crack!
“Gah!”
The man's head snapped back from the impact of the heavy piece of metal. Blood trickled down his face, but he somehow managed to stay on his feet and even lunged at Kanghyeok.
“Ughhhh!”
His eyes gleamed with the hope that he could survive if he just put one bullet in Kanghyeok's head.
Kanghyeok raised the rifle hanging near his chest and jabbed the man in the solar plexus.
“Gak! Guh!”
“Huuup!”
Kanghyeok shoved him all the way to the wall.
Thud.
The pistol fell from the man's hand. Pinning him with the rifle, Kanghyeok reached back with one hand.
He pulled out a magazine, ejected the empty one from his rifle, and slapped in the new one.
Pow!
The man, shot through the body, flinched violently.
“Gurgle, guh.”
As Kanghyeok pulled the rifle away from the man who was spitting up blood, he collapsed limply to the floor.
Pow!
Finishing him off with a confirmation shot to the back of the head, Kanghyeok gasped for breath and surveyed his surroundings.
Nothing. No one.
Kanghyeok was the only one left alive.
The area was filled with nothing but corpses.
“Huu, huu. Huuuu.”
After catching his breath, Kanghyeok retrieved his pistol and put a cigarette between his lips.
Click, click.
The blood spattered on his hand made him flick the Zippo's flint wheel several times before it finally lit.
Kanghyeok brought the lighter to the cigarette in his mouth, and once it was lit, he snapped the lid shut.
Click!
The sound was crisp, but the surroundings were not.
Sizzle.
Kanghyeok took a long drag, the end of the cigarette sizzling, then let the smoke drift out.
He could feel the tension of battle dissipating, his muscles relaxing.
“Ssss, huuu.”
Kanghyeok smoked the cigarette as slowly as possible.
As the cherry neared the filter, he could feel the nicotine filling his system.
Kanghyeok pressed the corner of his eye with the hand holding the cigarette, then took a deep breath and tossed the butt, burned down to the filter, onto a corpse.
The job at the hospital was done.
The next step was to finish Nobody before he could execute his next plan.
He already knew that bombs were planted throughout the city, and he also knew the frequency to detonate them.
Kanghyeok pulled a blood-soaked phone from one of the gang members' pockets.
He wiped the blood from the screen with his thumb and unlocked the phone with the dead gang member's fingerprint.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Scrolling through the call history, Kanghyeok found an unsaved number.
Usually, this would be a spam call.
But unless one was bored out of their mind, would they have a long conversation with someone they hadn't even saved as a contact, like the owner of this phone had?
Kanghyeok immediately pressed the call button.
Ring, ring.
After a long ring, the call connected.
Kanghyeok held the phone to his ear in silence, waiting for the other person to speak.
But as time passed, the person on the other end neither spoke nor hung up.
It was impossible, but he had the feeling that Nobody was hiding somewhere, watching him.
Ssss.
Kanghyeok hissed through his teeth and then spoke.
“It's me.”
(Hahahaha.)
A low, obnoxious laugh came from the receiver.
A familiar voice.
“Nobody.”
(Amazing. I didn't expect you to call me directly.)
Nobody's voice was high-pitched, like a child who had just received a Christmas present.
“I trust you already knew.”
But Kanghyeok spoke in a low voice.
“Since you lost contact with your men.”
After a moment of silence, Nobody spoke.
(That's right. I did think it was strange.)
“Why didn't you send reinforcements?”
Any normal person would have taken follow-up measures if they lost contact with the men they'd given orders to.
At the very least, they'd try to reestablish contact or send in more men.
But Nobody had done neither.
(Because you showed up.)
“You knew?”
Kanghyeok scanned the ceiling for CCTV cameras as Nobody's calm voice flowed from the receiver.
(It was faith. I just had a feeling you would come. And if you came, sending more men would be pointless.)
“You psycho.”
So he'd sent his men, who must have been waiting for backup, to their deaths all because of a ‘faith’.
(Were they any good?)
“They were trash.”
(A shame. I was hoping they'd be to your liking.)
Kanghyeok narrowed his eyes and pulled another cigarette from his pocket.
Click, fwoosh.
“Enough with the small talk.”
(There's still plenty of time.)
“I don't want to waste my time on the likes of you.”
Sizzle.
Kanghyeok took a deep drag from his cigarette and exhaled the smoke with his words.
“Tell me your location. If it's me you want, I'll deal with you.”
(Phuhuhuhu.)
After a laugh that seemed to paint a picture of his face, Nobody continued.
(Provocation isn't a good choice.)
Just as Nobody finished speaking.
Flash!
A flash of light appeared in the window.
KABOOM! Rrrrumble.
It was followed by a thunderous sound.
Not far from the hospital.
Flames and black smoke billowed up from the direction of the abandoned building.