Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: Annihilation (2)
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Drrrrrr!
The men armed with submachine guns mowed down the bastards trying to flee as soon as the door opened, and Kanghyeok strode deeper into the warehouse, aiming his pistol at them.
Bang!
He shot the one raising his rifle in the chest,
Bang!
blew off the head of another as he crumpled,
Bang, bang!
and shot the man next to him in the shoulder and head almost simultaneously.
“You son of a bitch!”
One of them aimed his rifle at Kanghyeok's head.
But,
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
bullets flying from behind Kanghyeok riddled his body.
Bang!
Kanghyeok finished him with a shot to the head, then extended the hand holding the pistol.
Clack-clack.
It was the direction of frantic typing on a laptop.
Seeing the men clustered there, Kanghyeok tightened his grip and held his breath.
It was a bit of a distance, but this was the pistol he'd received from the Master.
All he needed was a little focus.
“Block him!”
The other men turned their guns on Kanghyeok, but covering fire from Amos and Gabriel tore into them.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Thanks to them, amidst the hail of bullets and screams, Kanghyeok was able to focus solely on the man typing at the laptop.
Bang!
The bullet, fired with the recoil, cleanly pierced the man's temple.
“Damn it! Just push through!”
The man with short hair yelled as he pulled a USB from the laptop, and the men around him moved to protect him.
They glanced toward the windows and vents while the others laid down covering fire with their rifles.
Rat-tat-tat!
Taking cover, Kanghyeok ejected the magazine, checked his remaining rounds, and slammed a fresh one into his pistol.
He didn't know what was on that USB.
But the fact they were trying so desperately to protect it meant it had to be something important.
In that case, he would secure it.
Click.
Kanghyeok racked the slide to load the pistol, then poked his arm and head out from behind cover at the same time.
Bang!
“Kugh!”
The man holding the USB clutched his thigh and fell, and the others hooked their arms under his armpits to force him up.
“Cover me!”
Kanghyeok shouted, his eyes fixed on the men.
Rat-tat-tat!
Gabriel and Amos answered by pulling their triggers, letting him know they'd heard, and Kanghyeok closed the distance, weaving between boxes and shelves.
The men were clearly flustered, caught between Kanghyeok approaching from the side and Gabriel and Amos firing their submachine guns from the front.
Grind!
Kanghyeok closed in, so close he could hear them grinding their teeth.
Leaping out from behind a shelf, Kanghyeok lunged at a man aiming his rifle at Gabriel.
Bang, bang!
He shot him in the forearm and then shot the man with the USB in his other thigh.
“Kugh!”
The distance between them was now dangerously close.
Closing the gap even further until they were practically entangled, Kanghyeok grabbed the handguard of a rifle aimed at him and shoved it toward the man with the USB.
Bang! Bang!
At the same time, he permanently neutralized the man with two bullets.
It was then that his eyes met those of the man holding the USB.
Fear, shock, and bewilderment.
Kanghyeok responded to the emotions in the man's eyes with a cold stare, then turned his gun on another who was trying to bash his head with an empty rifle.
Bang!
The man went down in a spray of blood, and a bastard near the one with the USB turned his gun on Kanghyeok.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
A burst of bullets from behind took out him and the man next to him, and another turned his attention to Kanghyeok.
Kanghyeok pulled an empty magazine from his pouch and threw it at the man's eye.
Splat!
“Arrrggghhh!”
With a scream, the man clutched his eye and fell.
Kanghyeok drew his knife and plunged it into the neck of the man blocking his path.
Shunk!
He twisted the blade and pulled it out, and the man collapsed to the floor, gasping for air.
Stomping through the blood pouring from the man, Kanghyeok advanced on the one with the USB.
Only three men remained, and they stood in his way.
Bang! Bang!
After putting a bullet in each of their chests, Kanghyeok flipped his knife in the air and caught it in a new grip.
Holding the very end of the hilt, he threw the knife with great force at the last man's head.
Thwack!
Even the last man standing fell.
“Gasp, gurgle.”
“Ughhh.”
Two groaning men, and between them, the one with short hair.
Kanghyeok approached them, while Gabriel and Amos stood guard behind him, submachine guns at the ready in case of any surprises.
“Y-you... ugh...”
Bang!
Before the man could finish, Kanghyeok pulled the trigger on one of the downed men.
“Ah!”
As the man cried out and covered his head in terror, Kanghyeok shot the other one, then planted his foot on the man's chest.
“I'll give you one chance.”
The man trembled, lowering the hands that covered his face to look up at Kanghyeok.
Crack!
“Urgh!”
Kanghyeok pressed down on his chest, moved the muzzle to the man's face, and continued.
“Tell me why you were trying to do this.”
The man stared up at Kanghyeok, breathing raggedly.
It wasn't just the pressure on his chest; bewilderment and fear were choking him.
Kanghyeok and the ones behind him were no mere intruders.
They were skilled operators, and somehow, they knew everything they were planning.
How? By what means?
Even in the face of death, the man racked his brain for an answer.
But none came.
Crack!
“Urrghh!”
“I'll give you three seconds.”
Click!
Kanghyeok looked down at the man's face and racked the slide of his pistol. The man's gaze shifted to the muzzle, which looked ready to spit a bullet at any moment.
“Two.”
The man's face hardened at the number that left Kanghyeok's lips.
“One.”
The muzzle trembled slightly as his index finger rested on the trigger, and the man opened his mouth, his face set with resolve.
But what came out of his mouth was not an answer, but his tongue.
Crunch.
Watching the man bite his own tongue, showing his resolve never to answer, Kanghyeok spoke in a calm voice.
“I figured as much.”
Bang!
The man died with his tongue lolling out, his eyes wide open.
Kanghyeok holstered his pistol and reached into the man's pocket.
Then he pulled out the USB.
“Let's see if we can find anything useful.”
Kanghyeok glanced at Amos and gestured toward the laptop with his chin.
“They might not have wiped the data completely. Start there.”
“What about the USB?”
“We'll analyze it somewhere else, just in case.”
What if they'd installed a virus on the laptop?
Or set a trap, some security program that would destroy the data on any connected USB? All the information they'd just recovered would be wiped out.
Kanghyeok wiped the dust and blood from the USB with his thumb and pocketed it. Gabriel, who was following Amos, watched his profile.
'Is this the difference in skill?'
Kanghyeok looked unharmed.
At first glance, he seemed badly injured.
There was a lot of blood spattered on him.
But his face showed no sign of pain or suffering, so it seemed to be someone else's blood.
Kanghyeok's weapon was a pistol, so he would have fought in close quarters; it was only natural for him to be splattered with blood.
Jealousy and admiration.
Surprised by these two feelings rising unconsciously within her, Gabriel quickly averted her gaze from Kanghyeok.
Kanghyeok took out a cigarette.
He also pulled a lighter from his pocket, lit the cigarette, and stared down at the corpse at his feet for a long moment.
Then he turned and headed toward the stacked supplies, followed for a moment by Amos's questioning gaze.
Shing.
Kanghyeok drew his knife and jammed it between the wooden planks of a crate.
Then, using it as a lever, he pried the planks apart and roughly ripped one off.
“Hoo!”
Just as he'd thought.
Inside the crate were hazmat suits.
Vinyl suits, similar in feel to the ones worn by the men he had killed in the future.
The suits, which completely sealed off the wearer from the outside world, looked like something you'd find at a hazardous site, a hospital dealing with infectious diseases, or a science lab.
Not something you'd find in the warehouse of illegal arms dealers.
'This confirms it.'
These bastards were connected, one way or another, to the people Kanghyeok was looking for.
The ones who had destroyed humanity in the future.
'So what does my action mean, then?'
The enemy destroyed humanity much later than this.
That meant they had been preparing for a long time. Could he hope to stop their plan at its source?
Could he stop them this time?
Kanghyeok pushed a stream of smoke through his slightly parted lips, and Gabriel, who had been searching for documents, called out to him in a loud voice.
“Find anything?”
Gabriel waved the papers in her hand and replied.
“I found their plan.”
It was a major discovery, enough to draw the attention of both Amos, who was frowning as he rummaged through the laptop, and Kanghyeok, who was raising the cigarette to his lips.
Tssss!
Kanghyeok tossed his cigarette into a pool of blood and strode over to Gabriel, looking over the plan shoulder to shoulder with Amos.
“It seems to be a copy. That's probably why they didn't manage to destroy it in time.”
Gabriel said, but Amos and Kanghyeok didn't respond, their focus solely on the documents.
Flip, flip.
“The goods have already been handed over.”
Amos muttered with a groan as he read through the plan.
Five tons of a substance labeled 'reagent'.
Not only had it been transferred, but it had already been loaded.
“A reagent...”
Amos met Kanghyeok's gaze, and Kanghyeok nodded grimly.
The word 'reagent' immediately brought an image to mind.
The photo of a corpse that looked like it had died from a terrible disease without receiving any treatment.
The photo that had led Kanghyeok into a nightmare.
Gabriel, the one who had given him that photo, frowned as she looked at the bottom of the plan.
“Quantity loaded: five tons. They were planning to move it to Africa.”
There, they planned to conduct large-scale human experiments.
The plan even included targets and estimates.
“Crazy bastards.”
The curse escaped his lips the moment he saw the target numbers.
That's how many people would die if their plan succeeded.
That's why they needed the supplies here.
The hazmat suits and firearms in this warehouse.
They needed tools to control the local population in Africa and to protect themselves from the dangers of the reagent.
Flip.
Amos turned to the next page, let out a sigh of relief through his nose, and shook his head.
“They haven't left yet. Scheduled departure is tomorrow night.”
Their plan was as insidious as it was bold.
They were going to transport a large quantity of supplies on a cruise ship and then transfer them to another vessel in the Caribbean.
That ship's destination was Africa.
There, they intended to test the reagent and lead many people to their deaths.
“Looks like they originally planned to do it in the US. The psychos.”
Gabriel spat out with contempt, and at the mention of the US, Kanghyeok unconsciously thought of Nobody.
Could it be that Nobody's attempt to raze the area where Kanghyeok lived was for this experiment?
A ruined area is prone to epidemics.
If a disease broke out, the government would quarantine the area rather than provide aid, making it a decent place for an experiment.
It would also be much easier than Africa in terms of logistics and controlling variables for the experiment.
“Hoo.”
If that was the case, these guys were really like weeds.
To prepare the next plan immediately after the first one was thwarted.
What could possibly be their goal to invest so much capital into an experiment like this?
For what purpose?