Chapter 45
Chapter 45
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: An Answer in the Rain
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What Nobody had expected was the city's collapse.
The bombs planted throughout the city.
He had even installed amplifiers, setting them up so that a single press of a button would engulf the entire city in explosions and flames.
But the city remained cloaked in darkness.
The only sound was the rain.
The roar of explosions was nowhere to be heard.
“How… is this…”
For the first time, Nobody showed his bewilderment, pressing the detonator's button repeatedly.
But the bombs would not go off.
It was because of the message Leila, who had been waiting for Kanghyeok's orders in the sports car, had sent to headquarters.
A headquarters satellite, watching the city from high above, had emitted a jamming frequency, and the signal from Nobody's detonator vanished into thin air.
“Was this your doing?”
Nobody looked down at Kanghyeok, and Kanghyeok immediately thrust his hand into Nobody's side.
*Squish.*
As his fingers dug into the wound and touched an organ, a scream erupted from Nobody's lips.
“Gah! Gaaah!”
Kanghyeok grabbed Nobody by the collar, pulled him close, and hammered him with his fist.
*Thwack! Wham! Crack!*
The force of the killing blows sent Nobody's body reeling.
Unable to resist the vicious punches, Nobody spotted the communication device in Kanghyeok's ear.
*‘Was that woman’s name Leila?’*
A belated regret washed over him.
*‘I should have just killed her then.’*
Realizing he had been thoroughly outplayed by Leila, whom he had considered a mere colleague, Nobody smiled, his lips splitting even as blood streamed down his face.
“Ha, gurgle, hahaha.”
Kanghyeok let out a groan and climbed on top of Nobody.
*Whoosh!*
The pouring rain washed the blood from Nobody's face, and the water flooding his nose and mouth made it hard to breathe.
His fading life and the foiled plan for mass slaughter.
Nobody offered no resistance, simply watching as Kanghyeok picked up his pistol.
*Click.*
After shaking the rainwater out of the pistol, Kanghyeok aimed the muzzle at Nobody.
“Kill me.”
It wasn't a voice full of bravado.
Nor was it a voice laced with despair.
Speaking with a voice that conveyed intense hope and desire, Nobody looked at Kanghyeok with eyes that pleaded for death.
But what Kanghyeok offered him was not a bullet.
“Hah, haah! Talk.”
It was a command punctuated by ragged breaths.
“About what?”
“Why you did all this.”
As Nobody's eyes narrowed like a snake's, Kanghyeok continued.
“On whose orders were you trying to blow up the city?”
Nobody's actions were strange.
He had been obsessed with Kanghyeok, even at the cost of his own men.
Even blowing up the city felt more like a means to an end than the actual goal.
He seemed like someone carrying out an order he didn't want to follow.
“Hahaha.”
Nobody revealed his bloodstained teeth in a grin and shook his head.
*You could die and be reborn and still never know.*
Reading the message in the man's eyes, Kanghyeok cocked the pistol.
*Click.*
Even so, Nobody's expression didn't change.
“So there is someone.”
Nobody silently curled the corner of his lip, and Kanghyeok placed his index finger on the trigger.
“Last question.”
“If I may ask one question as well.”
Kanghyeok gave a faint nod and spoke.
“Why do you chase death?”
*Hiss, hiss.*
As death drew near, Nobody gasped for breath and spoke in a faint voice.
“Thirteen years ago, there was a man.”
As Kanghyeok furrowed his brow in confusion, Nobody slowly continued.
“A man left alone in enemy territory, calling for rescue. He'd stepped on a landmine and couldn't move. My comrades and I, soldiers at the time, went searching for him.”
Nobody's eyes, gazing into the past, grew deeper than ever.
“His position wasn't confirmed, so it took us a while to find him.”
“That doesn't answer my question.”
“No.”
*You have to listen.*
With a look more desperate than ever, Nobody summoned his last ounce of strength and spoke.
“We found him three days after his rescue call. He was a mess. He hadn't been able to sit, eat, or sleep for three days, just waiting for us in an empty field.”
Was it because of Nobody's determination to tell this story?
Kanghyeok found himself picturing the man Nobody described.
A man with sunken cheeks, covered in sweat and dust under the scorching sun.
“We approached him, offering words of comfort. Told him everything was going to be okay. That we'd safely remove the landmine. But do you know what he did before we could even reach him?”
*Swoosh.*
A brief silence fell. With the little time he had left, Nobody answered his own question.
“He looked at us and lifted his foot off the mine. From just two meters away, he was blown to pieces. I couldn't understand it. We would have reached him in a few more seconds, and he could have lived.”
*CRACK!*
The thunder that boomed nearby echoed through the sky like the explosion of the mine.
Nobody looked at Kanghyeok, his vision now fading.
“Somehow, I feel like you would know the answer. Tell me. Why did he do it?”
Nobody asked, his eyes pleading.
Nobody knew the answer to this question.
He had only found the answer to the question that tormented him daily during his military days after he had abandoned his name and become Nobody.
He realized the answer the moment he looked in a mirror one day and saw that his eyes were the same as that man's.
Since then, Nobody had asked this question many times, but in the last ten years, not a single person had answered correctly.
“Because he saw it.”
At Kanghyeok's long-awaited words, Nobody felt a sliver of hope and asked again.
“What?”
Kanghyeok's face twisted as he answered.
“A despair so great that life loses all value.”
Nobody's eyes widened in awe and admiration.
It was the correct answer, one no one else had ever given.
Only Nobody had figured it out, and only Nobody could have understood it.
To someone who has seen absolute despair, life has no value.
Not for the man who chose death with rescuers in sight, nor for Nobody, who had harbored false hope during his torture, unaware he had been abandoned by his country.
“Correct.”
Nobody's voice was damper than the rain that poured as if to drench the entire world.
Yet his eyes posed a question.
Why didn't Kanghyeok, who knew the right answer, crave death like him or that other man?
Why hadn't he given up on life?
Why did his eyes shine so brightly, like someone with a mission he must accomplish?
*Click.*
Instead of an answer, Kanghyeok moved the gun's muzzle to Nobody's eye.
Seeing the cold face and rage-filled eyes, Nobody twisted his lips and spoke.
“A shame.”
He spoke with a voice full of regret, sensing he wouldn't get to hear the answer.
*BANG!*
Nobody's body convulsed.
Then it went limp, and dark red blood spread from the back of his head, mixing with the rainwater.
Nobody was dead.
Looking down at Nobody's body, rapidly cooling in the downpour, Kanghyeok pushed himself up.
He then wiped the blood and rain spattered on his face.
His eyes were dark and deep.
Kanghyeok, too, had experienced a despair so great that life lost all value.
A world that had fallen to ruin.
A world where no hope could be found.
A world of nothing but despair, with no chance of salvation.
That was why he had spent the first year after his return like a wreck.
He had let go of everything, holed up in this city where he had no ties, and wasted away a life that had lost its meaning.
But not anymore.
“Ugh.”
Kanghyeok clutched his wound as a delayed wave of pain hit him.
“Hnngh.”
Pressing his side to endure the pain, he took the detonator from Nobody's hand and put it in his pocket.
Then he pulled the radio from Nobody's coat and brought it to his lips.
*Ksshk!*
Kanghyeok stared into the dark city where Nobody's men were hiding and spoke.
“Nobody is dead. The bombs won't go off now.”
The transmission was clearly sent, but no one replied.
They were likely listening to his every word, like rats holed up in a dark burrow, cautiously waiting.
*Ksshk!*
“I am here.”
Kanghyeok stared at the city and spoke forcefully.
“I'll be waiting. If you want revenge, come and get it. I'll face you. But if we meet somewhere else, at another time…”
Overcome by pain, Kanghyeok paused before finishing.
“You will regret it.”
*If you don't have the guts to fight me, leave this city.*
This hidden meaning was conveyed through the radio to Nobody's men hiding throughout the city.
*Ksshk!*
“I'll give you ten minutes.”
Kanghyeok dropped the radio.
The radio was submerged in rainwater, but he didn't need a reply.
They wouldn't come.
The men he had encountered here.
He hadn't seen a shred of loyalty in their eyes.
Men like that would never take the risk of facing him for the sake of avenging Nobody.
*Thump.*
His legs gave out, and Kanghyeok collapsed beside Nobody.
“Haah, haah.”
He could feel his body recovering.
But the profound exhaustion and the languor that came with the mission's end were overwhelming.
Kanghyeok took a cigarette from his pocket.
He put the soaked cigarette to his lips and stared blankly up at the sky, which was still pouring rain.
“Hooo.”
His breath froze white like cigarette smoke, then scattered in the wind and vanished into the darkness.
“Understood.”
In the car, William received Leila's report over the phone.
The report began with news of the mission's completion and ended with a promise to submit a written report later.
Still, all the important details were conveyed.
The city was not destroyed.
There were no mass casualties, and the culprit behind the incident, a man named Nobody, had been eliminated.
“What's Kanghyeok's condition?”
(Not good. But he's conscious.)
William narrowed his eyes and took out a glass and a bottle of liquor. As the driver glanced at him and slowed the car, William filled the glass.
“Is that all?”
(Yes.)
William slowly rolled his eyes.
He hadn't seen it with his own two eyes, but the extent of the injuries seemed far less severe than expected.
It wasn't that he was unhappy about Kanghyeok being safe.
On the contrary, it was a good thing.
And yet, a nagging sense of unease bothered him, like sand in his mouth.
“You remember the orders I gave you?”
(Yes.)
*Watch Kanghyeok.*
*There's definitely something about him.*
These were William's orders to Leila, and she had undoubtedly followed them faithfully while carrying out this mission.
“Anything unusual to report?”
(I'll include it in the report.)
William, about to raise the glass to his lips, blinked his yellowed eyes and paused.
“In the report?”
(Yes.)
Leila hadn't given him an immediate answer.
He didn't know if this was a polite refusal or something else, but it certainly didn't improve his mood.
“Understood. I'll look forward to it.”
After ending the call, William's lip twitched.
“Hmph.”
He then furrowed his brow and set down his phone.
He then wet his lips with the glass in his hand, his brow still furrowed.
*‘Still, though…’*
William set down his glass and relaxed his frown.
This wasn't a job that a single agent could have handled.
Yet Kanghyeok had finished the job perfectly.
Could any other agent in the company have done as well as Kanghyeok?
No.
Impossible.
As the HR manager who knew the personnel files and combat abilities of all the agents, William was certain that no one could have handled this incident as well as Kanghyeok.
*‘Then that's all that matters.’*
William shifted his gaze toward the window.
The sun, rising in the east, was casting a deep glow, preparing to light up the world.