Chapter 134
Chapter 134
So Air Is Infinite
I had personally come after hearing that a disturbance had broken out at Club 999, but what was this? The person I most wanted to avoid was standing right in front of me.
“It looks like you took over your competitor’s vacant spot. Congratulations on your promotion. So, as a celebration, why don’t you step aside?”
“If I stepped aside just because you told me to, I’d lose face. Surely you haven’t forgotten. The unwelcome guest here isn’t me. It’s you.”
“I only came to arrest a murder suspect.”
It was a ridiculous rebuttal. Talking about solving a case and suspects—weren’t those the kinds of terms the Public Enforcement Corps would use?
“You don’t have the authority to—”
A plastic business card flew toward him as if there was no need to hear the rest. The moment Owen checked the identification tag, his brows furrowed.
“Advisor? Since when did you become the Public Enforcement Corps’ dog?”
“Have you never considered the possibility that the Public Enforcement Corps became my dog?”
“Bullshit.”
Though Owen denied it firmly, he could not dismiss it outright.
The Ga-on he knew was that capable of a fixer.
“If you want to know who my assigned Sheriff is, keep standing there. It seems you’ve secretly stashed away some Eden too while gathering VIPs. My partner would be delighted to hear about that.”
“I burned every spare bit of Eden. There’s no way such a thing—”
Owen clicked his tongue before finishing.
Whether it was true or not was irrelevant. What mattered was that if the Public Enforcement Corps arrived with a search warrant, business would be finished.
As a Mafia executive, he knew enough people to avoid the worst of the storm, but no customers would visit a club that constantly found itself at the center of controversy.
There was only one point Ga-on was making.
Let’s end this before it becomes a headache for both of us.
It was an exceptionally dry threat.
“Heh heh, you’re still as impudent as ever. Seeing you jump around like that makes me want to take a bite out of you.”
To the point of wanting to kill you.
Suppressing the killing intent that threatened to slip out from between his lips, Owen quietly glared at him. Almost simultaneously, Ga-on smacked Philip across the head.
“This guy alone is already enough of a headache. I don’t want to add your people to the list.”
From the look of it, Philip was neither the heir of a prestigious family nor an innocent civilian. It was not worth opposing Ga-on just to protect a nobody like him.
But—
“I’ll leave this as a debt.”
“Do as you please.”
It was a level Ga-on could easily bear.
He had already stirred up trouble in the front yard of the Lucchesia Family and still walked away with all four limbs intact. It would not be wrong to say Owen had shown restraint.
However, just because the two had reached an understanding did not mean everyone accepted it.
The man who had been standing back and watching the situation unfold the entire time—a bodyguard—raised his gun and aimed it at Ga-on’s forehead for precisely that reason.
“You’ll leave the young master behind—”
Bang!
As if violently rejecting the protest, a beam of light streaked through the air.
Thud.
The giant body collapsed a beat later.
“Since you already owe me, take care of the cleanup too.”
As though he had been waiting for the opportunity, Ga-on dealt with Philip’s companion and leisurely disappeared into the alleyway.
***
Underground in District 15.
After throwing Philip onto the sewer floor leading to the wastewater treatment facility, Ga-on sat down nearby.
Since this was a place the Lucchesia Family regularly maintained to host the Black Market, there was hardly a better location for an interview.
“You think coming underground will keep you from being found? Why do you think location tracking exists? Why do you think video calls exist?”
Yet Philip, seemingly unaware of that fact, stubbornly kept his head raised.
Rather than arguing further, Ga-on simply answered by lightly tapping the back of Philip’s neck.
“What is it?”
Philip reflexively scratched the back of his neck, and his fingertips brushed against something strange.
Six angular corners, like touching a nut.
He knew what it was without even seeing it.
Lock Down.
A device that restricted most functions of a device, something that served as handcuffs for today’s Public Enforcement Corps.
He had no idea when it had been attached, but one thing was certain.
He had been cornered.
“You only need to tell me what happened to Wendy that day.”
“I already told you! All we did was have some fun! Is it really such a crime for sparks to fly between a man and a woman?”
“It seems there’s no choice but to help you remember with a little shock therapy.”
Ga-on rummaged through his clothes and pulled out a small case.
Inside was a disposable syringe.
Perhaps because the item was absurdly unimpressive, a mocking smile appeared on Philip’s lips.
“You’re going to stab me with that? I’m past the age of being scared of needles.”
That was the sort of statement made by someone who knew one thing but not the next.
“There’s something called an air embolism.”
It referred to a condition caused when air entered the bloodstream and blocked blood flow to the organs.
If the path to the brain was blocked, it resulted in a stroke.
If it was the heart, a heart attack.
If it was the lungs, a pulmonary embolism.
Curiously, the cause was the same, yet the outcomes varied greatly.
However, it was not something a person would ever encounter in daily life.
It took more than 50 milliliters of air entering the bloodstream to cause death.
Considering that even a palm-sized syringe only held about 10 milliliters, it was a difficult amount to achieve.
Still, that did not make it useless.
The moment air entered a vein, the agony it caused was enough to make anyone scream.
In that sense, a disposable syringe was useful in many ways.
First, it could be purchased cheaply in bulk.
Second, it allowed someone to torment another person without leaving a single wound.
And most attractive of all—
“Air is infinite.”
***
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry for acting up! Please, stop already! Stooop!”
It was not long before Philip, after being relentlessly educated in manners, confessed.
After hearing the entire story, Ga-on’s eyes sank into unfathomable depths.
As befitted a delinquent, Philip's tastes had always been abnormal.
Not pursuing romance or marriage and preferring only brief encounters was ordinary enough for him. His life's greatest amusement was taking advantage of women whose consciousness was unclear.
That was also why he frequented clubs—to search for such prey.
So it was not strange that Philip had taken an interest in Wendy.
She possessed a purity unlike any woman he had ever met.
There was no way he would not try something after deciding he wanted to enjoy something different for a change.
However, Wendy's resistance was fiercer than that of any woman Philip had ever encountered.
His emotions were unusually agitated that day.
And one mistake after another occurred that never should have happened.
The descent into ruin took only an instant.
There was no grudge.
No backstory.
Not even a purpose.
That was all there was to it.
He had been thoroughly drunk, had a powerful backer behind him, and crossed the line without hesitation.
Such was the end of a man like that.
“How did you clone Wendy?”
“I don't know. My father was the one who did it.”
Even so, he could still recall it vividly.
For some reason, his father had even praised him that day.
Even though the son he had gone through the trouble of bringing into the world had committed an unforgivable crime and crossed a river from which there was no return.
Even Ga-on found that suspicious.
No matter how much power and wealth a person possessed, it was human nature to avoid becoming entangled in unnecessary incidents.
That was why he had to ask.
“Who is your father?”
“My father is Hudson Nictor. He's an Assemblyman from the Pioneer Party.”
Now it made sense why a mere illegitimate son had two bodyguards accompanying him.
Hudson was of a similar seniority to Assemblyman Rouge, whom Ga-on's client Kurtnik supported.
He was a veteran politician at the stage where experience and connections began to carry real weight.
Wondering if he had overlooked anything, Ga-on searched further.
Hudson was responsible for District 29.
“District 29?”
Coincidentally, that district contained exactly that.
The pieces fit together far too perfectly to dismiss as mere coincidence.
“RG Purification Foods. Don't tell me that was your father's handiwork.”
“I don't know that much either. I don't have the authority.”
The answer was practically obvious.
There were countless other companies, yet they had deliberately inserted someone into a business that willingly acted as a secondary vendor.
That meant there was some form of connection.
Either supporting it, receiving support from it, or perhaps both.
“When he sent you there, he must have given you additional instructions.”
“H-he told me to keep a close eye on General Manager Halmi.”
Just as Halmi had testified, she seemed unrelated to the accounting fraud.
If she were on the same side, there would have been no reason to place even his own son there to monitor her.
“Hm.”
The situation was becoming increasingly complicated.
The deeper he dug, the more tangled the circumstances became, like pulling up an endless vine.
First of all, the method Hudson had chosen to cover up his son's crime was absurdly extreme.
It would have been easier to simply report Wendy as missing.
Instead, he had resorted to the audacious move of creating a clone human.
It was difficult to believe that a mere Assemblyman possessed the capital and technology necessary for accelerated cultivation.
It was more reasonable to assume he had connections.
But an organization powerful enough to accomplish that would never help him so readily.
There must have been some kind of agreement between them long before this happened.
And it was obvious that it was not the clean sort.
What promises had been exchanged?
What basis had they used to conclude that handling the matter this way was acceptable?
There were still missing pieces in the puzzle.
Based on the information he had gathered, Ga-on began predicting future developments.
Taking assumptions and variables into account.
After a long period of thought, he finally reached a conclusion and spoke.
“Send your father a message.”
The content was—
“Tell him it looks like you've killed someone again.”
***
Despite his age, Hudson possessed a remarkably imposing physique.
His snow-white eyebrows twitched as he slapped Philip across the face.
His late-born son tumbled backward disgracefully, but Hudson did not even blink.
“When are you ever going to grow up? Have I ever asked anything difficult of you? All I wanted was for you to quietly take the money I gave you and work your job. Was that such a difficult request? What exactly are you dissatisfied with that you keep causing these incidents?”
His harsh scolding showed no sign of stopping.
The reason he had rushed out before dawn was not because of fatherly affection.
His heart was too full of ambition to harbor such emotions.
In fact, hadn't he been holding meeting after meeting until late into the night in preparation for the upcoming Assemblyman election?
“You idiot. The blood of your lowborn mother truly can't be hidden.”
Even as an illegitimate child, Philip was still undeniably Hudson's son.
Which meant Hudson had no choice but to bear responsibility as a parent.
Even if there were no legal consequences, there were certainly moral ones.
That was why he had warned him over and over again.
Yet now, with the election right around the corner, murder?
Wasn't that the perfect issue to lose an election over?
“Where are your bodyguards? Why are you wandering around a place like this alone?”
“...They got me.”
Philip deliberately tilted his head.
Following his gaze, Hudson walked over and discovered an unconscious young man lying not far away.
“This brat did that?”
“Yes. He suddenly showed up and started asking questions. Asking if Wendy wasn't actually dead. Asking if the one walking around outside was merely her imitation.”
That was the secret shared between father and son.
Their reverse scale.
And a truth that absolutely could not be revealed to the public.
“Was he hired by someone?”
“I don't know that much. I attacked from behind the moment he let his guard down.”
Had Philip not acted quickly, the situation might have grown far worse.
The thought that murder would have been preferable brought a warm smile to Hudson's lips.
“Good work. You suffered for this.”
“Can you take care of it?”
“Of course. That's exactly what I'll do.”