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Chapter 34: Anyone Dead?
TL: Enuma ID
"Wh-what? What's going on?"
"I-I don't know. Gangsters, I think..."
People jolted in shock, as if struck by lightning.
Several diners startled and murmured amongst themselves, while a few kept quiet and watched warily, afraid the trouble might spill over onto them.
We b n о̃ v̈еl̆ En uḿ а
Before long, the shop owner came running out of the kitchen, white as a sheet.
"Sirs, sirs! What is... wh-what is all this... Why on earth are you doing this?"
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"Lady. You take our money and this is how you run a shop? You're gonna run this place like shit, is that it?!"
"D-don't do this! I'll, I'm calling the police right now!"
The owner cringed and fidgeted, her face drained white.
At her desperate cry, the thugs suddenly clutched their bellies and burst into jeering laughter.
W̌ѐb̄ ǹо̌ vе l̊ Ē nu m̌а̀
"Heek! You hear that? This lady's gonna call the cops! I'm so fuckin' scared, we'd better run, guys!"
"What do we do? I'm so scared I might piss myself!"
"Heh-heh-heh, hahahaha! Call 'em, call 'em! Heh. Call right now! We'll be so kind as to run away for you, hm?"
The thugs snickered as they trampled the side dishes spilled across the floor, and not content with that, kicked over empty chairs for good measure.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
Never mind that bits of food splattered onto customers at other tables.
The customers who'd been splattered mid-meal let out short shrieks.
Еn̈ ům̄а̄
But cowed by the thugs' size and menace, not one of them dared even protest.
"Please, please st-stop, stop this! Why, why are you doing this!"
"You've heard, right, lady? Donguri Restaurant, in that alley over there. How the owner nearly got shanked the other day."
My ears, as I quietly shoveled in another spoonful of rice, perked right up.
"Y-you people, don't tell me..."
"Ah, well, I'm not saying we sent our kids to do the stabbing. I'm just saying the world these days is a vicious, scary place. Am I wrong?"
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"Wh-what do you want from me, then!"
"No, no, lady. Don't be so scared. We're human too, we get our feelings hurt. Hm?"
"Right. It's not like we're waving a knife around threatening to make you disappear without a trace, are we?"
"What the hell do you want from me!"
The owner desperately clutched at one man's sleeve, clinging to it.
At that, the man tilted his head at a crooked angle and looked down at her.
Е ń_ûma. і̊ḋ
"We don't want anything else. Just hand over the shop nice and quiet, and go. Hm?"
"Th-that's..."
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"This isn't ending in a day or two, you know that? We'll come tomorrow, and the day after, for a month, a year, your whole damn life. Think you can handle that?"
"Please..."
"We don't stop at words. We're human, so we've got patience, right? But there's a limit to how long we play nice."
"Hic... ngh..."
Е̂ n u ḿ ā
"See you tomorrow, then? If you don't want us coming, shut the place down. Got it?"
Whether the owner was choking back tears or not, the man left his threat in a growling voice.
Meanwhile, the other four snickered their way out of the restaurant.
"Shit! The fuck are you looking at!"
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"Urk."
"Ah, ugh..."
Ӗ ń ù m̂ā
Right up until they left, they kept kicking chairs and terrorizing the customers around them, raising hell.
Everyone in the restaurant kept their heads bowed low, avoiding eye contact.
"Well then, see you all tomorrow?"
"Heeheehee."
Slam!
The last man banged the restaurant door shut on his way out, and a heavy silence settled over the wrecked restaurant.
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The place was an utter disaster zone.
"A-are you all right, ma'am?"
"Should we call the police for you?"
"Ah, hic. N-no, please, everyone... I'm sorry. I'm so terribly sorry..."
The owner bowed over and over, her eyes red, screwed up, and brimming with tears.
One of the customers, seething with indignation, fetched her a cup of warm water from the dispenser.
Wе b̄_n оv̌ е l̈ Еn ŭm ä
"I won't charge for today's meals, so please, everyone, get home safe. I'm so sorry, so sorry..."
"Goodness. What on earth do you have to be sorry for!"
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"Those rotten gangster bastards!"
The owner absently took the cup and downed the water in one go with trembling hands.
"Do those guys pull this at other places too?"
"Now that you mention it, I saw someone raising hell at another restaurant. Same guys, maybe?"
Ẇе b n̈оv̂е́ l̆ Ê ǹü m̂ а̌
The warmth seemed to steady her a little; the trembling in her shoulders gradually subsided.
"Whew. That's right. The owners of the shops nearby actually keep in touch because of those people... Every single one of them is being tormented half to death."
"So what on earth are the police doing, not locking those rotten bastards up? They don't get arrested even when you report them?"
"By the time the patrol car arrives, they've already trashed the place to their hearts' content and run off... And even when they do get caught, it ends with a warning and release."
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"Wait, seriously?"
"Yes... A few days ago, one shop owner really did almost get stabbed. They put a knife in the hand of a boy, barely a middle schooler, and put him up to it..."
Ěňù m ä
"No, seriously?"
It was the story about Donguri Restaurant I'd already heard secondhand.
While I nodded to myself, the customers, utterly dumbfounded, kept letting out groans of disbelief.
"How... how is that even possible on Korean soil? Bastards like that ought to be thrown in the slammer and put on prison rations, first thing!"
"I don't know... The boy was a juvenile under the age of criminal responsibility or some such, so he barely got punished, and we truly can't do a thing..."
"Good grief. What is this world coming to!"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"It's maddening! Ugh!"
Watching the owner pour out her grievances, wiping away the tears she'd been holding back, I downed another mouthful of cold soup.
Listening any longer would only make my blood boil.
"Ma'am. I'd like to pay."
"Ah! No, no, sir. You don't need to pay..."
"No, really. The food was great."
È n um а́.і̃ d.
I swiped my card over the frantic head-shaking of the owner, then headed straight out of the restaurant.
Then, hood pulled up over my head, I tailed the thugs.
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Sure enough, not long into the tail...
The thugs piled into yet another restaurant.
"Lady. Five set meals over here."
"...I-I don't sell food to you people. Get out!"
Ŵеb ń o ṽ e l Еnû m а̀
"Whoa there. What's with you, lady? We're customers, here to eat. You blind? Can't you see?"
"I said get out. Lunch service is over. We're closed."
"Oh, for real. Where'd this lady find the nerve today? Bring it out while I'm still asking nice. Five set meals!"
"Kyaaaah! Let go of meee!"
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After that, the thugs made the rounds of several more restaurants nearby, very diligently flipping tables and kicking over chairs as they rampaged.
Clearly they had a whole schedule and route mapped out, doing a circuit of the neighborhood's restaurants.
Ӗ_ṅ üm а̄
'Fine. Let's see how far you take this.'
When the thugs finished their rampage and sauntered off snickering, I quietly followed.
Before long, they arrived somewhere past a secluded alley in Garibong-dong, Guro-gu.
'Is that their hideout?'
An adult arcade building stood there.
The thugs pulled open the door of the arcade, its sign dark, with practiced familiarity and filed inside.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
[Bada Story]
The very sign of that adult arcade franchise that had shut down entirely years ago after sparking a nationwide scandal over rampant gambling.
The entire one-story commercial building was one big arcade.
With no other shops to be found nearby, it sat cut off like a lone island; the location seemed better suited to a gas station than an arcade.
"Hm."
I looked around for a moment, checking the building's exterior for security cameras or other entrances.
Wѐ b̀n o v̊ еl Ẽ n̊ um̀ a
After confirming there was nothing of note, I crept close to the building, keeping my breathing low, and quietly put my ear to the crack of the door.
The voices drifting through were so raucous I hardly needed to lean in at all.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Starting tomorrow, we sweep the restaurants at dinner too, not just lunch, and lay the groundwork good and proper. Split everyone into morning and afternoon crews and draw up the schedule."
"Ugh. Boss, aren't we working way too hard? This ain't the army. Since when do gangsters pull shift work?"
"Moron. Do you have any idea how much money comes out of swallowing even one of those shops? Once redevelopment kicks off in this neighborhood, that's prime real estate you couldn't buy your way into for five hundred million in key money."
"Five hundred million? Oho, heh heh heh. Thinking of it that way, we'd better make the rounds even harder."
Е́ n̂u m̆ а̌
Sinister talk, chattered about like idle gossip.
Drawing up shift rotations just to ruin other people's lives.
Truly, diligently vicious bastards.
"You saw the lady's face go white after we flipped a few tables, right?"
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"Making money's fuckin' easy, man. Heh heh."
They even bragged about trashing the restaurants like war stories.
Ѐ n û m ӑ
And that wasn't all they had to talk about.
"Boss. That Donguri place inside Singil, what's the plan there? The brat who waved the knife around is in a juvenile detention center now, so we can't use him for the time being."
"When does that restaurant's suspension get lifted?"
"Next Friday."
"Then by then, find about three kids at the middle schools nearby who want to make some money and rope them in."
"Three of them?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"That restaurant owner's got more guts than you'd think. This time we go in meaning it. Have exactly three on standby, the kind who'll ram the blade all the way into the guts."
"Got it. Guess I'll go hunting for some real crazy-eyed ones."
Eavesdropping on the conversation drifting through the door, I quietly leaned back against the wall.
I'd never expected any hope of rehabilitation to begin with, but I hadn't known it was this bad.
Vermin who drive people into despair, then burrow into that terror and feed on it.
'Actually, this works out.'
Ẁе̂ bn о̂ v̊е l Е ň um̊å
I no longer needed to feel even a shred of guilt about clearing them away.
Since I was getting up anyway, I yanked the steel door wide open.
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Creak.
"Hm?"
"What?"
The moment I opened the door and stepped in, a thick cloud of cigarette smoke came billowing out of the arcade.
Е̄ńû m̊ ӑ
Through the gaps in the smoke, the gangsters lay sprawled everywhere, the tattoos inked all over their bodies on full display.
"Who the hell are you?"
When I stopped short instead of walking farther in, the stares of dozens of men converged on me from all directions.
I played dumb and glanced around.
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"Huh? Isn't this a gaming café?"
"The hell is this fucking bastard... Get lost, now!"
Еn uṁ а . і̇ d̆
"How long do you think this place has been closed, you moron?"
"Oh, is that right? Sorry about that."
I glanced around a few more times, then gave a quick bob of my head and stepped back outside.
My perfect nonchalance left even them looking dazed.
"What's with that moron?"
"Who knows. Heh heh. Place has been shut down forever."
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
They figured some moron had simply wandered into the wrong shop.
Whatever they thought, I crossed the alley, redrawing in my head the arcade interior I'd scanned in that brief moment.
"Let's see... Twelve men total. No security cameras at the entrance or inside. No stairs down to a basement, no hidden spaces. One door inside that looks like a bathroom. A bunch of broken adult arcade machines. Along one wall, a sofa, chairs, a folding cot..."
The thugs were apparently squatting in the defunct adult arcade, using it as their hideout.
Aside from the door I'd thrown open, there was no real emergency exit to speak of.
"The problem is that thing."
Ẃ е̃ b ǹ о̆ v̂ е̃ l Ё n ûm̀ ǎ
Glancing out past the alley, I spotted a public security camera hanging from the streetlight right in front of the building.
If I barged in and wrecked the place carelessly, I'd be caught square on that camera, preserved neatly in the police records.
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Private commission or not, my true station was, strictly speaking, that of an NIS black agent.
Ending up on record, in any medium whatsoever, was absolutely out of the question.
"How do I deal with this..."
It looked like I'd have to watch the situation for a few days.
Еñ ū m̀.ӓ
The only way would be to lurk in the back alleys while they made their morning rounds wrecking restaurants and shops, and quietly drop them one by one.
Short of that, waiting for the moment that many men all poured out of the building at once seemed like a long shot.
That was the knot I was puzzling over, when...
Rustle.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Hm?"
My hand, digging absently through my pocket, closed on a single slip of paper that had tumbled in as if by chance.
Е ñù ḿа́
[Seshin Trading]
[Specialists in Industrial Rubber Packing]
[Kim Do-hyeon, Senior]
Tilting my head despite myself, I picked up my phone without thinking.
Ring-ring...
- Yes. Kim Do-hyeon, senior at Seshin Trading.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"Hello, Team Leader. It's Kang Hae-chan. This morning, at the sashimi place..."
- Ah! Agent. Of course I remember!
The moment he recognized me, a voice bright with welcome came through the phone.
I had a fair guess as to why his voice had lit up like that.
- What's the occasion? Have you made your decision, by chance?
"No. It's something else... There's something I wanted to ask."
Wӗ b̈n ӧ ṽе l Еnum a
- What is it? Please, ask away.
But I had no intention whatsoever of living up to his hopes.
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"Would it be possible, with the pull of the NIS Domestic Intelligence Bureau, to erase footage caught on a public security camera?"
- ...Security camera footage? That's... possible, certainly, but...
Hadn't he been the one bragging about it in the first place?
That with a single phone call, any incident could be smoothed over.
W̆ е̄ b̌ ǹ o v̆ e l Е̊ n u m̈á
"On top of that, I'd like to get hold of a burner car. If you know a dealer around Guro, I'd appreciate an introduction."
- ...A burner car? What do you need a burner car for...
Every snot-nosed kid in Korea knows burner cars are illegal, but aren't black agents like us the sort who stroll in and out of legal and illegal territory as we please?
"Something personal came up and I need one in a hurry. Would that be possible?"
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
- ....
I mumbled my way past the details.
Wēb́ nо̇v̆ е l Ёn̂ ŭ m á
For a good while, the voice on the other end fell silent.
It was a distinctly sour silence.
"If it can't be done, well, that's that."
- ...N-no, no. Of course I can point you to one... Th-there's no one in Guro, but I do know a dealer in Bupyeong. He buys and sells vehicles seized as debt collateral. Would that be enough?
"Ah, thank you. That should do just fine."
- M-might I ask what this is for?
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
"It's personal, so I'd rather not say."
- ....
"I'll be in touch again later. Text me the details, please."
Normally, I'd have found a way on my own, one way or another.
But even a single day was too long to sit around being patient.
*****
Wе b̂n о̂ v̆ еĺ Е́ nuṁа
Inside the Garibong-dong adult arcade, thick with cigarette smoke.
"Should we head out for dinner soon?"
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"Go? Go where? Just order delivery."
"I'm sick of Chinese takeout."
"If you're sick of Chinese takeout, then order pizza?"
"Oh!"
Е̌ ń uṁа̂
"Kehehehe. Moron."
A dozen or so men were snickering, trading pointless insults back and forth.
And then it happened.
Vrooooom.
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From the alley some distance outside came the roar of an engine.
At first they thought nothing of it, but as the sound drew abnormally close, a few gang members glanced over.
Ẃе̇b̆ nо v̊ е̊ l̂ Еń u m̈ а
"What's that?"
"Dunno. What is that?"
Before long, a bright halo of light began spreading across the frosted glass windows.
As if a car with its high beams on were charging straight at the glass.
"Uh."
"Wai..."
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In that instant, before they could so much as react...
Kraaash-shatter!
"Aaaaargh!"
"Kyaaaaah!"
With a colossal roar, the arcade's front window shattered spectacularly, glass flying in every direction.
High beams blazing, a massive black SUV plowed its bumper all the way to the back of the arcade.
Web̀ n̄ǒ v̇ е̌ l̆ Е̊ ň ůmå
"Ughk! Uwaaargh!"
"Gyaaah!"
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"Gurk! Hurgh!"
With the tremendous impact, the whole world turned upside down.
Dozens of arcade machines weighing hundreds of kilograms went tumbling across the floor like bowling pins, and the Gucheon Gang members who'd been lounging against the sofa snickering were swept up in the avalanche of machinery and slammed into every corner of the room.
"Ughk! Ooooogh..."
Е̌ n̊ ūm̌ а̃
"H-help, someone, hel..."
Thick clouds of dust, scattered shards of glass, fluorescent lights crackling and spitting sparks.
Screams, groans, ragged gasping breaths.
A catastrophe that had struck in an instant.
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"Agh! Fuuuck... m-my leg..."
"What... what the... what's, what's happening right now?"
Ẇ е̃b ñ ŏv̊ѐl̊ Е́ n ùm̈а̂
"Ngghhh..."
Most of the gang members lay sprawled, out cold.
Amid the wreckage, the few who barely clung to consciousness managed to look around.
With stunned faces, they stared at the cause of it all, the jet-black SUV.
The vehicle had come in with the accelerator floored, all the way to the far end of the arcade, and buried itself in the back wall.
Black smoke curled up from the half-crushed hood.
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At that moment, click.
"Hup."
The crumpled driver's door swung open, and a man stepped out of the car.
"Sheesh, what's with this burner car? Airbags didn't even deploy. Scared me for nothing."
He wore a hoodie, a brimmed cap, even a mask.
Brushing the dust off his clothes, he strolled out and leisurely surveyed the arcade interior, now a living hell.
Е̃n ǔm а
Everyone could only stare at the sight, faces blank with shock.
"Hi there. Anyone dead? No?"
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"...."
"If anyone's dead, go ahead and raise your hand. No one, right?"
No answer was ever going to come back.
*****
W̊e b̄n̄ ȯvеl Ënù m̊ а
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