Chapter 216
Chapter 216: Linked Mission
"Hang in there, junior."
"If anything happens, make sure to request support!"
"...I understand."
Kim Hana and Lee Yujin, who had lightly greeted Baek Woohyun, left first. They had many things to do on their own.
Kim Hana had to eliminate the targets on her assigned list, and Lee Yujin had to perform Special Agent support duties. This meant there was no time to spare.
Not just them, but other Special Agents also quickly dispersed to find their own targets. With their small numbers, it felt like they had to move busily.
'The workload is excessive here too.'
Thinking of Special Agents as part of the Otherworld Management Bureau made it easy to understand. Excessive work was like a symbol of the Otherworld Management Bureau.
Especially in the case of Special Agents, they had to perform both regular agent missions and Special Agent missions, making it even harder.
Unless there was a truly worthy reason to grind oneself down—like revenge, for example—it would be impossible to continue as a Special Agent.
'Well, doesn't matter.'
Baek Woohyun shrugged his shoulders and quickly moved to the address written in the documents.
His speed as he left the Otherworld Management Bureau and dashed across the city's night sky was very fast. Well, of course it would be, moving by leaping from building to building.
Of course, this was only fast compared to normal movement; it was much slower than when he flew using a telekinesis build.
Still, he arrived at the rooftop of his target apartment in an instant and cast his gaze downward.
'One person.'
Checking with his superhuman Ki perception, he felt various presences throughout the apartment, and the same was true of Kim Hyeonwu's home.
The presence presumed to be Kim Hyeonwu was frantically rummaging around inside the house. Roughly estimating, he seemed busy packing his belongings.
Kim Hyeonwu had probably realized he'd been exposed. So he seemed to be preparing to escape before a Special Agent arrived.
"Hmm."
What to do about this.
Baek Woohyun had already arrived.
He silently descended along the wall to the floor where Kim Hyeonwu's home was located and slipped inside as if seeping through.
It was a moment when his infiltration skills, honed while working as a contract worker 'over there,' proved themselves once again.
"......"
He hadn't noticed when sensing with Ki perception, but coming down directly, he saw all the lights in the house were off. Surely a trick to make it seem like no one was home.
But such efforts were meaningless before a monster like Baek Woohyun. No, probably it wouldn't have made much difference against anyone else either.
Anyway, the one who came here intended to capture and kill Kim Hyeonwu. Would such a person turn back just because the lights were off?
"...Damn...!"
Kim Hyeonwu, unaware that the Grim Reaper had appeared behind him, occasionally muttered small curses while frantically packing.
Then he suddenly froze in the silence, having finally realized that Baek Woohyun's shadow cast from behind now covered him.
His hands clutching clothes trembled in fear as if foreseeing the future. The purpose of someone visiting him so secretly was obvious.
"......I am."
Swish!
Baek Woohyun didn't even listen to the end of Kim Hyeonwu's trembling words.
Closing the distance instantly, he mercilessly swung down his military dagger, and Kim Hyeonwu, merely a civilian, couldn't withstand the blade swung with superhuman strength.
The body that lost its head collapsed onto the blood with a thud. It was a clean yet futile ending. Not that Kim Hyeonwu would have wanted it.
But what could be done?
Baek Woohyun wasn't the type to let traitors run their mouths. It had been the same when Boss Jeong Beomu betrayed him long ago, and this time was no different.
Even if some information was lost as a result, it didn't matter. He would rather choose to struggle a bit more than be played by a traitor's words.
Moreover.
'These guys' thoughts are obvious anyway.'
Having hunted traitors several times and perfectly grasped their behavior patterns, arguments about why they did it or what they were thinking were meaningless to Baek Woohyun.
In fact, he very skillfully searched Kim Hyeonwu's corpse for his smartphone, unlocked it with the dead man's finger, and began searching for information.
All those actions were remarkably natural. One could feel the sense of familiarity deeply ingrained in his body.
"......"
"......"
"Why, why are you both looking at me like that?"
'SuspiciouslyVeryVeryVeryVeryVeryVeryVeryVerySuspicious' donated '1000 won'!
[They're telling you to confess quickly that you're a Special Agent]
-Facts) Right -It's too natural lololol -He's really not trying to hide it at all -Actually, isn't Jeong Nayeon also like an agent assistant??
"Huh? No, I'm telling you! Really not!"
"Yeah, sure. Let's go with that."
"Okay! I get it! I completely understand, Nayeon!"
"Gyaaak-!"
-Everyone take the hint lololol -Knowing but pretending not to know... you know? -I get the vibe~ -If everyone knows the secret, is it still a secret? lol
***
[Kim Hyeonwu: What the hell did you guys do?]
[Kim Hyeonwu: What did you do to make the Management Bureau go crazy like this!]
[S: Is that important?]
[Kim Hyeonwu: Of course it's important! Because of your bullshit, I'm about to get caught too!]
[Kim Hyeonwu: No, I got caught! Fuck! I said I got caught!]
[S: You got caught? I see]
[S: If you want to flee abroad, contact us]
[Kim Hyeonwu: Abroad where?]
[S: Anywhere]
'Fleeing abroad, huh.'
Baek Woohyun, who confirmed Kim Hyeonwu's plan through the secret message contents found on the smartphone, smirked.
Whether the research facility would really send Kim Hyeonwu abroad after he'd outlived his usefulness, or quietly dispose of him midway, was anyone's guess.
And probably the latter was more likely. Kim Hyeonwu was only valuable as Support·Auxiliary Team Leader; the person himself didn't seem to have high value.
Kim Hyeonwu must have also guessed this, as his smartphone Hypernet search history showed desperate traces of researching other ways to leave the country.
However, it seemed he hadn't found a proper method. In the end, seeing that he sent a reply accepting the research facility's proposal to go there.
Presumably, the fact that there wasn't much time also played a role in this choice.
'This guy must have also vaguely known about the existence of Special Agents.'
Kim Hyeonwu, who was nominally the Support·Auxiliary Team Leader, had roughly guessed about Special Agents and likely harbored fear toward them.
In a situation where even just being caught would mean decades in prison, if a Special Agent came for him, he would surely meet death.
In that case, it was obvious he would judge it better to gamble and receive help from the research facility side.
'The best judgment made by a cornered rat is usually something like this.'
Baek Woohyun tapped the smartphone screen and sent a message [Leaving now] to the research facility forces beyond, as if he were Kim Hyeonwu.
Perhaps they were also waiting for a response, as the reply came back quickly.
[S: 〔Address〕]
[S: Be careful not to get tailed]
'They're not monitoring this place, it seems.'
Baek Woohyun, who pocketed the smartphone, left Kim Hyeonwu's house the same way he had entered. It was a perfect assassination leaving no trace whatsoever.
Then, as soon as he climbed to the rooftop, a system message appeared saying the "Traitor Execution" mission was complete and a new mission called "Tracking the Tail" had been created.
It seemed to be a continuous mission, commonly called a chain mission, where one mission continuously spawned others.
Having become perfectly familiar with 'Reverse Planet,' he casually waved them away and once again dashed refreshingly across the night sky.
The address sent by S, the research facility's tail, wasn't far from Kim Hyeonwu's house. A distance that could be reached in an instant by car.
Thanks to Baek Woohyun being faster than a car as he freely traversed building rooftops, arriving at the address location was instantaneous.
Stopping at a somewhat distant spot, he looked with narrowed eyes at the seemingly ordinary three-story building.
'As expected.'
Baek Woohyun prided himself on having the ability to identify research facilities better than anyone.
It wasn't simply baseless confidence, but conviction based on experience destroying countless research facilities 'over there.'
To him, there was a high probability that a research facility lurked in the basement of that building. The evidence was the strangely numerous CCTVs hidden here and there.
Moreover, this was also proof that his thoughts when confirming the foreign escape plan on Kim Hyeonwu's smartphone were correct.
The research facility side had no intention of keeping Kim Hyeonwu alive after he was fired from Support·Auxiliary Team Leader. The intent to murder to silence witnesses was clearly felt from the fact they called him to the research facility.
If Kim Hyeonwu had come here, they would have used him appropriately as a test subject before killing him to permanently seal his mouth.
"......"
But unfortunately for them, the one who came here was Baek Woohyun. A superhuman who hated research facilities and wanted to erase them all from the world.
Those who planned to capture one powerless civilian and stuff him into a research facility were completely unprepared to face a monster.
Which meant.
'First, shall I reduce their numbers slowly from the top?'
The method Baek Woohyun used in the early days 'over there' when destroying research facilities worked well.
Reaching out slightly, he firmly gripped the floor of the rooftop railing where he stood. Naturally, an ordinary floor couldn't withstand superhuman grip strength.
With a crunch, the floor tore off leaving scratched marks and turned into several small stones in his grasp.
The reason he suddenly tore off the floor was simple.
He planned to infiltrate inside the building through the rooftop, but to do that, he first needed to neutralize the CCTVs installed flawlessly up to the rooftop.
However, if he used his chain scythe or threw daggers for that, he'd instead make loud noises and increase the chance of getting caught, so he made temporary throwing weapons called stones.
'The power is sufficient anyway, and they don't make much noise.'
Even if someone inside the building heard the sound of falling stones and reacted, what would be the problem?
Even if they moved to find the source, all they could see would be common stones.
It didn't take long for Baek Woohyun, whose eyes had now become inverted eyes, to deal with all three CCTVs monitoring the rooftop.
Thud!
After that, it was smooth sailing.
Baek Woohyun leaped up as if flying and landed on top of the research facility building, then opened the rooftop door and entered inside.
In the process, there was a very minor incident where the rooftop door was locked, but it was just a minor incident as stated. When you're strong, most problems are easily solved.
Isn't there even a joke that if your body is bad, your head suffers?
"Huh? Wha-"
Crack!
Was it the sense of security from being on the third floor?
The first security guard he encountered wasn't even properly wearing his equipment. Not only no bulletproof vest, but no firearm either.
Though having all those things wouldn't mean he could react to Baek Woohyun's ambush anyway.
"Ghack?!"
Crack!
Baek Woohyun, who instantly broke the neck of the first security guard he encountered, freely roamed the third floor.
From those who came out alone to use the bathroom, to those sleeping, to those gathered watching TV and resting—no one escaped his hands.
The fact that the security guards happened to use the third floor as a rest space also greatly helped the silent massacre unfold.
The security guards who let down their guard thinking they'd fight from the first floor even if someone broke in were helplessly slaughtered.
"......"
But this wasn't really the security guards' fault to blame.
When a monster they couldn't beat even fighting head-on was hiding in the darkness and going around killing, how could they survive?