Chapter 146 : Warehouse Raid
Chapter 146: Warehouse Raid
“······.”
Baek Woohyun, upon hearing the question, smiled faintly.
It was a thin smile that formed at the corners of his lips, but the ferocity contained within was sickeningly vivid.
From it emanated a thick scent of blood as intense as Kim Hana’s gaze—no, even more so. And that was merely from slightly pulling up the corners of his mouth.
“···That was a pointless question.”
Kim Hana shrugged her shoulders and held out a business card.
It was a card with ‘Geumyang Ilsu’ written in large letters.
Like most loan shark business cards, below that was filled with all sorts of miscellaneous phrases.
‘Geumyang Ilsu?’
He felt briefly puzzled internally by the name that felt somehow familiar.
Soon, a layer of dry, emotionless killing intent settled over Baek Woohyun’s face. It was an expression that made anyone who saw it instinctively shrink back.
Because he realized what it meant that he vaguely remembered the name of a loan shark company that was merely at the tail end.
In the past, in ‘that side,’ he had driven the Research Facility and Corporate Alliance to ruin, along with countless enemies directly and indirectly connected to them.
Naturally, among them were human trafficking organizations that supplied test subjects, and his rage at having been forcibly made into a test subject had completely erased them from the world.
It had been a clean annihilation that left not even a single subordinate organization beneath them.
“······.”
The loan shark company Geumyang Ilsu was likely one of the subordinate organizations Baek Woohyun had eliminated back then. That’s why it remained vaguely in his memory like this.
And that meant, in other words, that the organization above Geumyang Ilsu was large enough in ‘that side’ that he had to step forward and eliminate it himself.
‘If that’s the case.’
Baek Woohyun glanced at Kim Hana.
Because if he obtained information while annihilating even the organization above Geumyang Ilsu, truths that would surely be unpleasant for her would be revealed.
Truths that would tell her how deeply the Research Facility and Corporate Alliance’s machinations had reached within the Otherworld Management Bureau.
“Why, Junior?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Of course, as always, Baek Woohyun did not warn Kim Hana about that part.
He would have to reveal information about ‘that side’ to explain, and since there was no reason he had to do so, he simply chose silence as always.
He only silently wished in his heart that she would succeed in punishing the machinations that had infiltrated the Otherworld Management Bureau, just as in ‘that side.’
‘Though here, I’ll probably end up helping with that.’
“Well then, we’re done here! Let’s head straight to Geumyang Ilsu, Junior!”
“Yes, understood. Senior.”
Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana, having left Jeong Hyeonjun’s house, advanced the situation with truly unstoppable momentum.
Just the two of them suddenly barged into the Geumyang Ilsu office, beat down the thugs guarding it, and caught the fleeing president to begin interrogation—all in an instant.
After all, it was only natural that a loan shark company without even an Awakener couldn’t possibly stop the strongest individuals even within the Otherworld Management Bureau.
In this world, even dozens of armed ordinary people would be crushed by a single Awakener. Especially if it was a close-combat build, there was no need to say more.
“Th-this is everything! I really don’t know anything more! I just handed them over when it was time and that was it!”
‘So it’s true.’
Before Baek Woohyun, who was restraining him by grabbing the back of his neck while pressing him, the Geumyang Ilsu president scraped out and spilled every bit of information he knew down to the very bottom.
There was no sign of him stubbornly holding out his life for loyalty like in movies, or keeping his mouth shut out of fear of the organization above.
He just looked around nervously at Baek Woohyun’s mood, as if he didn’t even care what consequences the information he was spilling would bring.
But precisely because of that, the location of the human trafficking organization’s meeting point that the Geumyang Ilsu president spat out gained persuasiveness.
His determination to sell out anything to survive was felt so clearly that it didn’t seem fake at all.
If this was acting to deceive Baek Woohyun, it would be impressive enough to be fooled by. Of course, he’d have to come back and deal with him later.
“······.”
“Pl-please spare me! If you spare me just once, I’ll really live righteously! Please!”
Did he sense an ominous sign in Baek Woohyun’s silence?
The Geumyang Ilsu president thrashed his body as if having a seizure and shouted.
From him, pleading to be spared just once, asking if he hadn’t spilled everything he knew, emanated a desperate longing for survival.
Probably the money he’d earned from running a loan shark business and even human trafficking was flickering before his eyes.
“The people you sold off because they couldn’t repay their debts.”
Baek Woohyun looked down at the back of Geumyang Ilsu president’s head with his black-and-white inverted eyes. His gaze didn’t waver in the slightest at the president’s desperate pleading.
Rather, it only froze more coldly. Though the president, subdued while lying face down, couldn’t even know that.
“When they begged you to please spare them, you didn’t listen.”
“···!”
“That’s why you’re dying.”
“You, you fu─”
*Crack!*
Instead of a final death cry, the neck of the Geumyang Ilsu president, who tried to spew curses, snapped with a *crack*. It was a bend at a terribly sharp angle that made one certain he was one hundred percent dead.
The cursing he was about to spout in anger was cut off midway, and a cold silence descended on the loan shark office that had become a mess.
After twisting his neck in one go, Baek Woohyun checked the pulse to confirm he was certainly dead before removing his hands from the corpse some time later.
“You didn’t spare him this time?”
“This bastard was trash who kept selling people to the research facility even though he clearly knew there was a high possibility they’d die.”
Baek Woohyun’s pure white pupils flashed with killing intent.
Emotions piled layer upon layer in the depths of his unconscious flowed out subtly as he killed the Geumyang Ilsu president.
Just as the vengeful spirits calling for revenge and wishing to tear their enemies to death, his killing intent was deep and profound.
After all, he was someone who had suddenly become a test subject and suffered terrible torture for years on end.
Naturally, someone who ensnared people in private loans and sold them to the research facility couldn’t look good to him. Because he could clearly see the fate of those who were sold that way.
If it weren’t during a broadcast, and if Kim Hana weren’t beside him, he wouldn’t have killed the bastard as comfortably as this.
“True.”
That was all the reaction Kim Hana showed.
Because she too acknowledged that the Geumyang Ilsu president was someone who deserved to die.
He had sold people who couldn’t repay their debts as test subjects, and the number of those who crossed that path of no return exceeded dozens.
“By the way, if they’re using a large warehouse on the outskirts of Seoul to gather people, the scale of the human trafficking organization seems beyond imagination.”
According to the information the Geumyang Ilsu president spat out, there were at least more than ten ‘test subject suppliers’ like this place.
Even if each of those places sent just two or three people a month, it would exceed dozens, and to keep that many people in a large warehouse would be impossible without a considerable organizational scale.
After all, to monitor dozens of people, even with weapons, you’d need at least half that number of organization members, wouldn’t you?
The financial power to control over ten supplier organizations under them and the military force to operate dozens of armed members.
The scale of the human trafficking organization that could be inferred from this was surprising even to Kim Hana.
She had thought of them as at most parasites that grew feeding off the research facility, but it felt like a tree with roots spread into the research facility had appeared out of nowhere.
“Well, they’re still just a violent organization.”
However, Baek Woohyun, who had already guessed the scale of the human trafficking organization through his experience in ‘that side,’ was calm.
He continued with an indifferent expression.
“Since they’re just a business partner and not the research facility itself, there will only be about two or three Awakeners. Senior and I alone should be enough to wipe them out.”
“Those words, Junior. Do I hear them as meaning let’s go sweep them out right now?”
“···? Weren’t you obviously planning to do so?”
Kim Hana smiled brightly at Baek Woohyun, who asked back puzzledly.
“Of course I was planning to.”
“As expected.”
“Looking at how well our opinions match, don’t Junior and I seem like quite the perfect match?”
***
-Perfect match ㄷㄷ
-Isn’t that a high favorability dialogue from Hana?
-Already when they’ve only worked together for how long;
-Could it be··· since it’s Fully Responsive AI, it even reflects the player’s face···?
“Huk!”
“What!”
“What?!”
“···Why are you surprised, Chloe?”
“···It felt like I should be surprised given the atmosphere?”
“Ahem, anyway, that’s quite an interesting hypothesis. That because Fully Responsive AI is applied, even the player’s appearance is reflected in NPCs’ behavior and attitude.”
-Did they go for “plausibility”
-So ugly people absolutely must use avatars, fuck
-If it looks at faces too, it’s literally no different from reality
-From when all the fully responsive systems were applied, it was already reality though?
‘VirtualRealityLol’ donated ‘1000 won’!
**[Planet Earth, this crazy developer]**
***
Baek Woohyun and Kim Hana, leaving Geumyang Ilsu behind, immediately headed to the large warehouse of the human trafficking organization in the Seoul outskirts.
Actually, the precise location was closer to Gwangmyeong City rather than Seoul outskirts, but anyway, since the Geumyang Ilsu president said Seoul outskirts.
As they had done throughout today’s special mission, they traveled via Kim Hana’s vehicle and were able to easily find their target warehouse.
It wasn’t strange since it was a building built conspicuously large. To begin with, when they entered the location into the car navigation system, proper guidance came out.
“Hmm.”
On the outside it looked like just an ordinary large warehouse, but to Baek Woohyun, who had already come knowing the truth, the discordant points of this place kept catching his eye.
For example, that there was only one passageway to exit outside, or that the warehouse surroundings were enclosed by oddly tall fencing.
While you could say it was possible that the guards who occasionally showed themselves looked excessively reminiscent of thugs, it was clear this place was suspicious.
“There are tons of CCTVs around the warehouse. At this rate, quietly entering seems impossible.”
“No, it probably won’t be that difficult. The warehouse security system is likely a mess.”
“Why do you think so, Junior?”
“Because the fence I checked while looking around was old.”
“···Hmm?”
To Kim Hana tilting her head, Baek Woohyun calmly continued his explanation.
“The reason they installed such tall fencing is probably so they wouldn’t miss any of the confined people if they escaped, so the ones who installed that would be the human trafficking organization, wouldn’t they?”
“That would be the case. Most likely.”
“But the fence was quite old. It looked like at least years had passed since it was installed. Surely the human trafficking organization has continued doing business using this place all that time. Without any problems.”
“─Ah!”
Kim Hana, finally understanding the correlation between the old fence and the warehouse security system, exclaimed.
She looked at Baek Woohyun with wide eyes.
It was a look of amazement that his thinking reached that far from just one fence.
“That’s enough time for thugs to become steeped in routine. I see that place as just decorated plausibly but actually defenseless.”
The guards are thugs belonging to the organization, and no problems occurred over the past several years?
Baek Woohyun would bet there wasn’t even anyone watching the monitor connected to those CCTVs right now.
The fact that the guards who came out of the warehouse had messy uniforms, and that they had been joking around among themselves for quite a while before going back in, supported his claim.
“Let’s break a few CCTVs appropriately and check the reaction. We can decide our next action depending on how they respond.”
“Sounds good, Junior!”
*Whoosh! Crash!*
Persuaded by Baek Woohyun’s speculation born from experience, Kim Hana immediately threw stones at three CCTVs and smashed them.
The stones carried by the wind hit precisely their intended targets, and the CCTVs that had been monitoring here and there all dropped their heads to the ground at once.
Surely right now, the monitors connected to those CCTVs were either showing pitch-black screens with the connection cut, or were only showing the ground directly below.
However, even after several minutes passed, there was no reaction from the warehouse.
Despite the external CCTVs being broken, the thugs who had been standing guard didn’t show even a trace of themselves. Only cold silence lingered.
Indeed, as Baek Woohyun speculated, it seemed even the manpower watching the CCTV screens had disappeared.
“Let’s go.”
After neutralizing all the CCTVs monitoring the route, crossing the clearing, and finally standing before the entrance, the infiltration proceeded far too smoothly.
It was so simple that Kim Hana even let out a hollow smile without realizing it.
“Isn’t that just how things are?”
“I guess I set my standards too high.”