Chapter 144 : Tracking
Chapter 144: Tracking
User ‘Hmm’ donated ‘1000 won’!
[So you’re saying an ordinary college student is good with weapons, good at killing people, and good at threatening too? Hmm]
-What
-Huh
-Is this for real?
-Or?dinary
“What do you think about that donation, Nayeon?”
“…It, it’s quite unique, but! Originally, a person’s talent can suddenly emerge from unexpected places!”
-It emerged from way too unexpected a place lololol
-I still can’t grasp how Hackphysical moves the chain scythe
-Talent suspiciously concentrated in one direction… hmm…
-Isn’t it experience rather than talent?
Swish.
When Kwon Dojung showed a submissive attitude, Baek Woohyun finally loosened his grip slightly on the back of Kwon Dojung’s neck.
He still kept pressing down to prevent the opponent from getting up, but it was to read biological reactions through the sensation touching his fingertips.
A body with superhuman strength had even superhuman senses, making it possible to distinguish truth from lies through biological reactions like pulse and breathing.
“Name.”
“Kwon Dojung!”
“Age.”
“31… 32 years old!”
“Gender.”
“Fuck! You can see it! Male—”
Crack.
“Gaaaah!”
“When did I permit anything other than answers?”
After needlessly throwing a tantrum and having another finger broken, Kwon Dojung shed tears profusely.
A sense of crisis that he might really die at this rate showed clearly on his face. The merciless violence that tolerated no resistance was that frightening.
Breaking his finger just for being a bit temperamental. Truly the action only a crazy bastard desensitized to violence would show.
Of course, Baek Woohyun had much to say too.
According to what he’d experienced through ‘that side,’ bastards like Kwon Dojung would try to pull something if given even a little opening.
Or like how he needed to identify biological responses when telling the truth through trivial questions to finally notice the difference when lying.
‘Response collection is about done.’
“Do you know Lee Seojin?”
“I don’t! I have no idea who that is!”
Even after finishing collecting biological reactions to distinguish truth from lies, Baek Woohyun didn’t immediately get to the main point.
He questioned Kwon Dojung with several fictional names, which was a smokescreen considering possible reverse tracking.
If he only asked about Jeong Jihun specifically, what information he wanted would be obvious, making reverse tracking too easy.
In reality, he had to be more thorough as he had once been tracked down due to such careless behavior when working as a contract worker.
Currently, as ‘Reverse Planet’ was becoming increasingly realistic with Isaac’s updates, this was even more true.
“What about Jeong Jihun?”
“Wh-what, you mean Jeong Jihun the drug dealer from Daerim-dong? Did you come looking for me because of that bastard?”
“Not that guy.”
“Then I don’t know… Ugh.”
‘He’s telling the truth.’
Unfortunately, the first suspect, Kwon Dojung, seemed to be a dud. He was just an ordinary thug who knew nothing.
Realizing this fact, Baek Woohyun turned his head slightly to check Kim Hana. It was to decide whether to ‘clean up’ Kwon Dojung based on her reaction.
However, she still stood leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, saying nothing. As if she hadn’t said she’d just watch for no reason.
“……”
After a moment of consideration, Baek Woohyun made his decision.
He would spare Kwon Dojung’s life rather than kill him.
If this bastard had known something, he would have extracted the information then killed him, but that wasn’t the case.
Press.
“Guh, why! I answered!”
“……”
At the hand pressing on his carotid artery, judging that Baek Woohyun was trying to kill him, Kwon Dojung spewed curses and struggled desperately.
However, Baek Woohyun’s strength wasn’t weak enough for an ordinary person without supernatural abilities to shake off. If that were possible, it would have been possible when he was choking him earlier too.
Soon after about a few seconds passed, the struggling Kwon Dojung went limp. His consciousness cut off as the amount of oxygen supplied to his brain rapidly decreased.
“……”
“……”
Baek Woohyun withdrew his hand and tilted his head toward the exit, meaning they should leave, and Kim Hana, who had been still all along, finally began to move.
The two people, leaving the collapsed Kwon Dojung behind, moved quickly to escape the house filled with stuffy air from lack of ventilation.
They even made sure to close the door firmly so no other intruders would enter. Though the locking device was broken so it meant little, anyway.
“Why didn’t you kill him?”
When they reached a suitable place out of other people’s sight, Kim Hana suddenly asked.
Rather than interrogating, she seemed to ask out of pure curiosity. The look in her eyes watching Baek Woohyun only contained the meaning of ‘why?’
In fact, it was a matter she had reason to be curious about.
When it came to silencing someone, the simplest method was indeed murder to silence witnesses.
“Should I have killed him?”
“No, not necessarily.”
When Baek Woohyun asked back, Kim Hana shook her head.
If they absolutely had to kill Kwon Dojung, she would have said so inside the house.
Not doing so and following the suggestion to leave meant that Kwon Dojung’s life had exactly that much value.
“I was thinking that with Junior’s personality, you might just kill him.”
“Did I seem that way?”
“Well, somewhat?”
“I suppose so.”
Watching Baek Woohyun agree without protest, Kim Hana continued speaking.
“Still, that’s actually better as a special agent. It’s a world that requires coldness and cruelty.”
Kim Hana revealed through the bitter smile hanging on her lips that her words weren’t mere pretense.
Knowing that she had been active as a special agent for quite some time, Baek Woohyun caught the underlying meaning in her words.
She must be speaking this way after seeing various people who weren’t adequately cold and cruel suffer for different reasons after becoming special agents.
However, instead of rambling on as if he knew about her, he returned the conversation to its starting point.
“The reason I didn’t kill Kwon Dojung is simple.”
“Tell me, Junior.”
“Because that bastard wasn’t significant enough to require silencing by killing him.”
This was a conclusion drawn from combining the contents of the documents received from Kim Hana, what he confirmed by observing directly, and the information obtained through interrogation.
The Kwon Dojung that Baek Woohyun identified was just a common thug. At best, maybe at the level of a low-ranking organized crime member.
Killing such a guy would only make cleanup difficult with no benefit. There was also the possibility of needlessly drawing people’s attention.
“What about the possibility of reverse tracking through Kwon Dojung?”
“It’s questionable whether they’d even attempt reverse tracking through such a guy.”
Baek Woohyun answered with a slight laugh.
“And even if they do, I think it’s fine because I spread enough smokescreen to adequately block it.”
Jeong Jihun was just one of several names Baek Woohyun had questioned Kwon Dojung about.
Being able to see through that at once meant having information related to Jeong Jihun in the first place. Then they’d reverse track somehow even without Kwon Dojung.
Clap clap clap.
“Excellent. I’ll give you a passing grade.”
After hearing all of Baek Woohyun’s explanation, Kim Hana clapped and nodded. Satisfaction she had no intention of hiding showed on her expression.
She had been giving off an evaluating vibe, so he’d roughly guessed, but at the fact that it was really a test, Baek Woohyun shrugged and asked.
“This was a test?”
“Not exactly an important test, just me judging how suitable Junior will be for operating as a special agent going forward.”
“Because it’s better to request restraint from the start if you seem too aggressive,” Kim Hana added with a slight smile.
Certainly, thinking about it, her words were right. Even for special agents performing black ops, it was proper to refrain from overly aggressive operations.
Warning in advance before causing excessive incidents out of blinded revenge could be considered an extremely natural process.
“Anyway, I’m glad it’s a passing grade. Then shall we head to the next target now?”
“Let’s do that, Junior.”
-Wow lol so this was a test lololol
-If it were me I would’ve just killed him then been like huh? Wasn’t I supposed to kill him? lololol
-So that’s why Hackphysical suddenly asked weird names ㄷㄷ
-Why is the story progression so good??
“Certainly, Mr. Cheater’s story progression ability is extremely impressive. Considering the Fully Responsive AI and Fully Responsive Story System, it’s an incredible level.”
“…That much?”
“That much. Human-like NPCs, stories that change with choices—who else could unfold a world practically identical to reality this perfectly?”
“Without Woohyun it would be difficult.”
-For real it’s amazing lololol
-Thinking of it as playing the real-life version of RePla with a perfect score makes it amazing ㅇㅇ
-A perfect score special agent… wow!
-I like how refreshing it is without unnecessary anxiety heh
After Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana went to find the second suspect Kim Jinho listed in the documents, they finished the investigation through a similar procedure to Kwon Dojung.
Unfortunately, the second suspect Kim Jinho also had no information. That is to say, he too was just an ordinary thug.
Moreover, a trashy thug ready to sell out even his cousin’s eighth cousin at the first sign of a broken finger, spilling information eagerly.
“This guy’s a dud too.”
“Well, I didn’t think we’d catch the tail easily. Let’s go straight to the third suspect!”
Having cleanly finished investigating the second suspect, the two immediately moved to the third suspect, Jeong Hyeonjun.
However, unlike Kwon Dojung and Kim Jinho whom they succeeded in finding easily, they couldn’t meet Jeong Hyeonjun despite searching several places where he was supposedly frequently spotted.
As if someone had warned him in advance, not showing even a trace made their suspicions grow stronger for a moment.
Flinch.
‘Blood smell.’
Reaching in front of Jeong Hyeonjun’s house, Baek Woohyun smelled the fishy scent of blood with his superhuman sense of smell. It was a thick smell that could never be mimicked by light bleeding.
Sensing something had happened, the first thing he did was pull up the mask that had been lowered below his chin up to the tip of his nose.
He concealed his identity first in case the culprit of the current situation hadn’t left the house yet.
“…!”
Kim Hana, who noticed through Baek Woohyun’s reaction that something unusual had occurred, also seemed to smell the blood scent slowly seeping out from beyond the door.
With a hardened expression, she quickly pulled up her mask like Baek Woohyun to cover her face. This too was to avoid revealing her face to the culprit like him.
Since she was better known than Baek Woohyun, who had just become an official agent, she had to hide thoroughly.
Creak.
“……”
Carefully advancing inside Jeong Hyeonjun’s house, Baek Woohyun soon discovered a room that had become a sea of blood. Also Jeong Hyeonjun lying there clutching his neck.
Judging by the deeply gashed wound on his neck and the tremendous blood loss that had stained the floor red, the probability of him being alive seemed almost zero.
‘I’ve caught the tail.’
A situation where the third suspect to be interrogated was dead before they could even exchange words.
Yet Baek Woohyun was extremely calm. He rather viewed this situation as a kind of opportunity. An opportunity to catch the enemy’s tail that had finally revealed itself.
After all, who else would kill Jeong Hyeonjun at this point? Those who eliminated Jeong Jihun to silence him must have eliminated Jeong Hyeonjun too.
If he could use this as an opportunity to track them, he could reach the research facility and Corporate Alliance without much difficulty.
Clatter!
“…!”
Just then, a sound came from deep inside Jeong Hyeonjun’s house.