Chapter 72
Chapter 72
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: May Grace Be With You (2)
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Thud.
His knees hit the hard floor.
He tasted metal, as if he'd bitten down on steel, and the muzzles of their guns swarmed toward Kanghyeok.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
It was then that Gabriel’s gaze fell upon Kanghyeok.
Brrrrrrt!
Her hands reacted faster than her mind.
She immediately covered her head and sprayed her submachine gun to cover Kanghyeok as he was being shot, but her eyes soon widened as if witnessing the impossible.
Kanghyeok was getting up.
Click.
Clad in a suit with its outer fabric torn, revealing the Kevlar fibers beneath, Kanghyeok had the eyes of a wounded wolf, and his gaze was fixed on his attackers.
Boom! Ka-boom!
Two shotgun shells fired in quick succession.
It was more than enough to obliterate the man hit at close range.
“You…”
Kanghyeok pulled the trigger without so much as a glance at Gabriel.
Ka-boom!
“Watch what's in front of you!”
Kanghyeok kept pulling the trigger, and the men, though stunned, fired relentlessly to stop him.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Taking cover, Kanghyeok reloaded his magazine and threw a glance at Gabriel.
His eyes were certainly not those of a dying man.
Gabriel froze for a moment, then tore her eyes away from Kanghyeok and turned her attention—and her gun—back to the enemy.
The people from the company are monsters.
Monsters among monsters that you must never confront, and if you do, you must run.
Those were the words the Father who had trained her had told her.
Now, she understood what he meant.
She had learned how terrifying a company man in a bulletproof suit could be, and also how reassuring it was when such a person was on your side.
Brrrrrrt!
Gabriel moved as if to cover Kanghyeok.
Amos fought to draw the enemy's attention while Kanghyeok pushed forward.
‘There it is.’
The men were reacting sensitively to Kanghyeok’s movements.
*Tsschk!*
(He's moving toward the fuel room. Stop him. Stop him at all costs!)
It was partly due to Lento’s panicked voice coming through their earpieces, and partly to protect the ship and its cargo—assets of the Iron Mask.
As a result, their attempts to block Kanghyeok only served to reveal his destination.
Thump, thump, thump!
Kanghyeok ran toward the door visible behind the men, who shouted to their comrades in furious voices.
“Follow the orders!”
“Stop him! We have to stop this bastard!”
Fifteen men had gathered to block Kanghyeok.
Brrrrrrt!
Two of them met their end at the hands of Gabriel's gun.
The two collapsed, blood streaming from their heads.
Ka-boom!
Kanghyeok charged at the men, blasting his shotgun, and the face of the man who took the hit exploded.
Crack!
The man next to him had the bridge of his nose shattered by the stock of the gun,
“Dieeee!”
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
and was shot through the head by his own comrade's bullets.
Ka-boom!
It was as if Kanghyeok had exacted the man's revenge for him.
Grab!
One of the men grabbed Kanghyeok by the waist and pushed him back.
“Shoot!”
As he shouted, the others aimed their guns at Kanghyeok.
Thwack!
Kanghyeok pulled the man's shoulder and kicked his ankle.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The man collapsed on top of Kanghyeok, shielding him as his comrades' bullets rained down.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Lying on the floor, Kanghyeok drew his pistol and fired at the men. The bullets, fired from a meter away, accurately pierced their foreheads.
“Gurgle, gurgle, gack.”
Kanghyeok put a bullet in the temple of the gasping man still clinging to him, then stood up.
Brrrrrrrrt!
Gabriel and Amos were holding back the others, leaving only this group to stop Kanghyeok.
Clang, bang! Clack!
Kanghyeok gripped the empty pistol and jabbed the muzzle into a nearby man's eye.
“Aaargh!”
As the man clutched his face and threw his head back, Kanghyeok picked up a rifle and swung it hard, smashing it against the man's temple.
Crack.
The sound and sensation of bone shattering.
His blood boiled, and a strange feeling washed over him, as if his soul were taking deep root in the earth.
Ironically, the act of killing made the sensation of being alive run wild within him.
‘Why?’
Is it because this is a fight for survival?
Is it the hope that finishing these guys might change the future?
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Kanghyeok fired the rifle repeatedly, as if searching for an answer, and the men hit by the bullets sprayed blood as they fell.
Clack!
Having emptied the rifle, Kanghyeok picked up the shotgun and approached the remaining men.
Brrrrrrt!
The sounds of Gabriel and Amos fighting, the screams of the enemy, the recoil of the shotgun—they all shook his body violently.
Ka-boom!
The man firing in front of the door took a blast to the chest.
“Gurgle.”
He coughed up dark red blood, slumped against the door, and slid down to the floor.
Ka-boom!
Finishing him off with a shot to the head, Kanghyeok stood before the door.
He had finally made it.
Click!
The door was locked.
‘The key?’
Kanghyeok started to look for a key, but then raised his shotgun instead. He pointed it at the door, pressed the muzzle against the handle, and pulled the trigger.
Clang! C-crack!
The sound echoed loudly through the spacious area, drawing everyone's attention.
Gabriel and Amos.
The men fighting them.
And Lento, watching Kanghyeok through the CCTV, felt something entirely different.
“No…”
Lento let out a groan. The other men turned their guns toward Kanghyeok, only to be killed by Gabriel and Amos.
Brrrrrrt!
As they laid down covering fire to keep the enemy from interfering with Kanghyeok, they could feel their hearts pounding.
They were on the verge of completing their objective.
If they could just get that door open, they could stop the enemy's plan for mass murder.
Brrrrrrt!
As the gunfire, filled with fierce determination, rang out, Kanghyeok pushed open the door with its shattered handle.
And he was inside.
In the fuel room, filled with all sorts of machinery.
It was then.
Grrr-grind!
Near where Gabriel and Amos were, a heavy steel fire shutter descended from the ceiling with a grinding sound.
“Ah, no!”
“Get out of the way!”
Other men threw themselves out from under the shutter, but two were caught beneath it.
“Gah, kraaaaargh!”
The man whose waist was crushed by the heavy fire shutter screamed before his head slumped.
Gabriel and Amos stared at Kanghyeok, their faces pale.
“Get out! You have to get out now!”
Kanghyeok didn't answer.
It wasn't that he didn't know what was happening outside.
He had heard the fire shutter coming down.
And he knew how thick it was.
‘Can my body withstand it?’
The explosion Kanghyeok was about to cause was on a completely different level from that of a grenade or a grenade launcher.
It would have enough destructive force to punch a hole through the cruise ship's outer hull. If he were caught in the blast, his body wouldn't survive.
Not even with his bulletproof suit.
Not even with his healing abilities.
He would have no choice but to face the inevitable death that awaited him.
“Get out!”
At Gabriel's desperate cry, Kanghyeok clenched his jaw.
“I can't.”
He picked up a nearby hose and opened the auxiliary fuel port of a tank. He shoved the hose deep inside, then whipped the outer end like a whip.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The hose grew heavier.
Then, liquefied fuel began to pour out, soaking the floor.
The fuel gushed out relentlessly, soaking his shoes and flowing outward until it reached the bodies.
*Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.*
As the fuel spread, Amos grabbed Gabriel’s shoulder.
He met her gaze and shook his head.
“There's no time.”
To cause an explosion, someone had to stay behind.
And the only person who could take on that role was…
Amos shifted his gaze to Kanghyeok, who was still siphoning fuel, then grabbed Gabriel's shoulder and moved toward the fire shutter.
Clank, clank.
The remotely operated shutter was still moving up and down, trying to close completely.
But the bodies were blocking it. Amos pushed the smaller Gabriel out first, then squeezed through himself.
Right after,
Grind!
the shutter suddenly shot up high and then slammed down.
Kerr-chunk!
It sliced the body clean in two and sealed shut completely.
The once-single space was now perfectly divided.
“Hoo, hooo.”
Lento, who had pressed the button to lower the shutter, trembled as he let out a sigh of relief. He then rose from his chair at his subordinate's urging to open the door and evacuate immediately.
As he headed up to the deck under the protection of his men, Lento glanced back at the monitor.
He was a terrifying man.
‘Let's hope we don't meet even in hell.’
In that brief moment, Lento seemed to have aged several years.
Kanghyeok, who had displayed more threatening and overwhelming force than any man he had ever seen, was deeply etched into Lento's mind.
As a symbol of fear.
As a mark of despair.
Splash!
“Hurry, move it! It's going to blow any second!”
“There are still a lot of guys who haven't evacuated!”
“There's no time to wait!”
On the deck, the evacuation was in full swing.
Lifeboats tossed onto the sea rocked wildly in the current, and men threw life jackets to one another as they prepared to escape the cruise ship.
Their faces were filled with desperation.
They knew that even if they survived this, they wouldn't truly live.
For failing to protect the cruise ship and its cargo, they would either be hunted for the rest of their lives or be killed.
Still, fearing the immediate death looming before them, they tried to flee the ship. But Gabriel and Amos couldn't bring themselves to leave the closed shutter.
Grrrind.
Amos bit his lip so hard it bled, then raised his submachine gun.
Just as Kanghyeok had done to the door, he pressed the muzzle tight against the shutter and fired.
Brrrrrrrr!
It was the least he could do.
Hoping Kanghyeok could escape through this weakened spot, Amos poured bullets into the thick barrier.
And Gabriel joined him.
Brrrrrrt!
Shell casings rained down as the two of them kept firing at the shutter, so relentlessly that their gun barrels began to overheat.
Click, clack.
Only after exhausting most of their ammunition did they take their fingers off the triggers.
“We're going up. We'll wait for him there.”
Despite his words, Amos couldn't easily leave.
Finally, realizing they couldn't delay any longer, he reluctantly started to move, turning away after one last look at the bullet-riddled shutter.
“We have to go.”
Gabriel was the last to move.
And as the two of them headed for the deck, Kanghyeok was covering his mouth with his sleeve, operating the machinery in the fuel room.
Click. Vroooom.
He pressed a button, and the ventilation system activated.
The fuel, already saturated in the air, spread throughout the ship via the vents. Kanghyeok did a final check of his grenade launcher.
Only a single grenade round remained.
Just one, but it was enough.
Enough to destroy this cruise ship and the drugs it carried.
Vrooooom.
Listening to the low hum of the ventilation system, like the breathing of a demon, Kanghyeok moved toward the shutter.
Was it because he was being poisoned by the fuel in the air?
Or was it the lack of oxygen?
His feet were heavy, his body sluggish.
His head was spinning, and his body felt like it didn't belong to him.
Trudge, trudge.
He wanted to smoke a cigarette, but lighting one now would set off the explosion.
So Kanghyeok held onto his consciousness with sheer willpower and walked to the shutter.
When he reached it, he took off his jacket, wrapped it around the stock of his gun,
Smash!
and slammed it against the shutter.