Translator: Dreamscribe
Lee Chan-hoo, mid-chew on a piece of braised pig's trotters, froze. Because just a moment ago, he'd heard something shocking from his Commander, Kang Jae-ha.
"...Sir? Commander, what did you just say?"
Chan-hoo, already narrow-eyed by nature, squinted even harder. He set down his chopsticks and rose to his feet, while Kang Jae-ha was still pointing his index finger at the TV.
"The culprit behind this case. Looks like your next recruit."
Chan-hoo had sidled up next to him before he knew it, looking at Jae-ha's face. Half-believing, half-doubting. Was he joking? But one look at Kang Jae-ha's expression changed his mind. The Commander's eyes held gravity and resolve.
"The culprit is, a Mercenary Corps guy?"
"That's right."
Chan-hoo, equally grave now, fixed his gaze on the TV. The anchor was delivering a serious warning. A woman in her fifties attacked by an assailant. Multiple stab wounds consistent with a knife. The victim had miraculously regained consciousness, but the attacker's intent had undoubtedly been to kill.
On top of that.
"A series of connected incidents."
The victim wasn't just one person. This was already the second. One woman and one man. The female victim had survived, but the older male victim had ultimately died. A serial case with a fatality.
The anchor on TV added further details.
-["The CCTV cameras around the crime scenes are not intact, and due to a lack of evidence left at the scenes, police are struggling with the investigation."]
The culprit hadn't left behind weapons or traces, and the CCTV and dashcam footage critical to the investigation had somehow been turned off or corrupted. That was strange. Chan-hoo, who had been silently listening to the anchor's voice, spoke up.
"Commander, the fact that the CCTV and dashcams aren't intact..."
Kang Jae-ha finished for him.
"Some kind of ability. Like your 'Search'."
A guess that it might be an ability like Jae-ha's 'Deja Vu' or Chan-hoo's 'Search'. Soon, Chan-hoo silently murmured a thought he'd held for a long time.
'The battlefield, blood and slaughter. Couldn't resist the addiction, huh.'
It was one of two things. Either enjoying the killing, or unable to endure it any longer and snapping.
In the other world it hadn't been much of an issue, but in this world, killing was strictly forbidden. What kept that in check was reason. But if instinct overwhelmed them, both Kang Jae-ha and Lee Chan-hoo had plenty of potential to become killing machines. Of course, the two of them would never let that happen.
Chan-hoo asked.
"But Commander, are you sure about this?"
"......"
Jae-ha, offering no answer, recalled the 'Deja Vu' he'd just seen. It had been a different form of 'Deja Vu' from anything before. It had activated suddenly, without a target.
『A space like a department store. Mannequins dressed in neat suits stood on display. Well-pressed shirts and ties were laid out on the counters. A place that sold suits. A few customers were visible, attended by three staff members. Among them, a rather tall, sharp-featured, handsome man wore a salesman's smile.
"Ma'am, you have great taste. That's this year's new arrival."
"Oh? Really? No wonder, it caught my eye right from the start."
"Is it a gift for your husband?"
"Yes, yes. Oh, the fit looks similar, doesn't it? Can I hold it up against you?"
"Of course."
A woman with a soft way of speaking. She looked every bit the well-off lady, holding a suit jacket up against the male employee before pulling it away. Pinned to the man's chest was a name tag.
-Kim Ho-yeon
The male employee's name was Kim Ho-yeon. Maintaining his smile, he stood behind the lady. Then, discreetly, he inhaled. More precisely, he was smelling her scent. Kim Ho-yeon's body trembled faintly.
Something lurched here. The scene changed.
How much time had passed was impossible to tell.
Silence, darkness. An abandoned factory. Kim Ho-yeon in a black field jacket and gloves. A sharp knife in one hand. In the other, he gripped the hair of the lady thrashing desperately. The lady whose scent he had smelled. Kim Ho-yeon pressed the knife to the throat of the lady begging to be spared.
"The more you scream, the more I like it. That's the whole point."
Kim Ho-yeon smiled, a sickly, metallic grin.
"How am I supposed to hold back? You know how it's been all over the news lately, serial killings and all that? That's me. There's one bitch I let live, but that was on purpose too. It's fun to let them go and then track them down again. But not you."
Kim Ho-yeon's hand moved, tapping the knife against the cheek of the half-unconscious lady.
-Squelch.
Blood burst from the lady's neck.』
That was the extent of the 'Deja Vu' Kang Jae-ha had seen. It was quite different from the usual 'Deja Vu'. The content was considerably long, and it had manifested without a clear target. Even when Jae-ha had been in the other world, nothing like this had happened.
In other words.
'Something that started after coming to this world.'
In any case, the 'Deja Vu' itself wasn't what mattered right now. Kim Ho-yeon, the one he'd seen in the 'Deja Vu'. He had without a doubt been a subordinate in the Mercenary Corps. And on top of that, the culprit behind the recent string of serial incidents.
"Lee Chan-hoo."
Kang Jae-ha gave a short, blunt explanation about Kim Ho-yeon. Hearing it, Chan-hoo's eyes widened slightly.
"Ah, that bastard."
"He was in the Assassination Squad with you. Were you close?"
"Not really. The things he did were so moronic, I kept my distance."
"He was skilled, though."
"Come on, he was way below my level."
"Name's Kim Ho-yeon. Use 'Search' to find him, where he is right now."
Since he knew Kim Ho-yeon's face, name, and other details, it wouldn't be difficult. Chan-hoo closed his eyes as if to confirm that. He opened them again a few seconds later.
With his brow furrowed.
"Location is Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, an abandoned factory. Fuck, this son of a bitch is with some woman right now."
Without a second's hesitation, Kang Jae-ha broke into a run.
"You drive."
About 30 minutes later. An abandoned factory in Yongin.
The time was past 11 PM. The location was an abandoned factory with a mountain behind it. The surroundings were pitch black. Rows of derelict buildings made the atmosphere all the more eerie. The kind of place no one would ever approach. And indeed, there wasn't a soul in sight.
From within that abandoned factory came signs of life.
A man in a black field jacket. Sharp features. It was Kim Ho-yeon. In one hand, a knife. A pointed sashimi knife. The corner of Kim Ho-yeon's mouth twitched. He was smiling. Looking down at someone.
A woman with blue tape wound around her arms and legs was begging. It was the lady from Jae-ha's 'Deja Vu'.
"...P-please, spare me. Please, spare me, I'm begging you."
Kim Ho-yeon crouched down. The tip of the sashimi blade touched the ground. Kim Ho-yeon smirked. It was a mischievous grin without a trace of malice, like a naughty child.
"You've come this far, so just accept it, yeah?"
Tears streamed from the trembling lady's eyes.
"Please... please, spare me. Please......"
"What an idiot. At this point, you should be thinking, 'ah, I'm not making it out alive'. Just enjoy it too, would you?"
"Nngh... hic."
"See, that's what you get for smelling so good. Honestly, I was thinking about laying low for a while, but I couldn't resist because you smelled so nice. Just you, and then I'll take a break."
"...Hnnk. Wh-why are you doing this to me."
"I told you, because you smelled good."
The sashimi knife lifted from the ground. The tip of the blade touched the lady's nose. The lady's body trembled without pause, and Kim Ho-yeon's smile deepened beyond measure.
"Want to hear something fun? I'm actually, from this side but not from this side. I spent over a decade in another world, and the people I sent to the grave there number in the hundreds. No, maybe more? Anyway, you follow me so far?"
"......"
"But then suddenly. Suddenly I'm fucking sent back here. Right when I was having the time of my life. Ripping, carving, slicing, tearing out, stabbing, twisting. You think I can hold that in?"
The blade at the lady's nose trailed down to her chin, her throat, her chest.
"The sound of guts spilling onto the floor. A severed head on the ground, and the eyes still stuck to it, staring at me. The stench of rot. The screams. I've always liked that stuff. Enough that I've dissected dogs and cats."
Before anyone noticed, the knife in Kim Ho-yeon's hand had come to rest against the lady's abdomen.
"I despaired when I came back here, but guess what? Turns out I've got an ability. Nobody can find me."
Eyes brimming with confidence. An expression twisted with madness. Kim Ho-yeon was no longer an ordinary human. He was a monster. One that reveled in slaughter.
"Alright, let's go."
Kim Ho-yeon stood. He grabbed a fistful of the thrashing lady's hair. The lady squirmed desperately, begging to be spared. The more she struggled, the deeper the smile on Kim Ho-yeon's lips grew, and he pressed the sashimi knife in his hand to her throat.
"The more you scream, the more I like it. That's the whole point."
It was the same line Kang Jae-ha had seen in the 'Deja Vu'. Which meant Kim Ho-yeon's knife would pierce the lady's throat any moment now.
Sure enough, Kim Ho-yeon lifted the lady by her hair and met her eyes.
"How am I supposed to hold back? You know how it's been all over the news lately, serial killings and all that? That's me."
Kim Ho-yeon, his eyes brimming with madness, tapped the sashimi blade against the lady's cheek. Even now she was thrashing wildly, and Kim Ho-yeon, unbothered, tightened his grip on the hand holding the knife.
Just as the blade, drawn slightly back, nearly reached the lady's throat.
-Creeeak.
The abandoned factory's door opened from behind. In that instant, the hand holding the sashimi knife stopped dead. By this point, the lady had fainted, perhaps from the sheer psychological shock. Kim Ho-yeon, eyes slightly widened, slowly turned his head back.
An unexpected variable. A first.
Soon the smile vanished from Kim Ho-yeon's face. Tension took its place. The factory door, thrown open without warning. But whoever had opened it was nowhere to be seen. No one was visible. Just pitch-black darkness. Kim Ho-yeon readied himself to use his 'ability' at a moment's notice.
That was when it happened.
"Kim Ho-yeon."
A low male voice came from the distance. He knows my name? Kim Ho-yeon, sashimi knife still pressed to the lady's throat, narrowed his brow.
"Hm? Who's there?"
Then.
-Swoosh.
Someone slipped through the factory door, opened just wide enough for one person to pass. Quiet footsteps. Kim Ho-yeon narrowed his eyes. His vision, adjusted to the dark, could make out the other party. Not one, but two. Both looked like men, judging by their builds.
The man in front was wearing a coat and walked straight toward Kim Ho-yeon without so much as slowing down.
Before long.
"Kim Ho-yeon."
The man, now three steps away, called Kim Ho-yeon's name again. Kim Ho-yeon, holding the lady in his arms, went from serious to bursting into laughter. Because he recognized who the man was.
"Commander?"
The man was Kang Jae-ha.
"It is the Commander, right? No way, whoooa, is this for real?? Why is the Commander standing in front of me??"
A childlike expression. Kim Ho-yeon in this moment. He was genuinely happy and amazed. However, he did not remove the sashimi knife from the lady's throat.
"Commander! It really is you, Commander! What the hell! Did you cross over too? When? Oh oh oh, and you behind him??"
Having recognized Chan-hoo as well, Kim Ho-yeon bounced around even more excitedly.
"What the hell. You both crossed over? You were from this side? Ah, that's so unfair! Having all the fun without me!"
"......"
Expressionless, Jae-ha stared at Kim Ho-yeon without a word. And at the unconscious woman.
"Did you kill her."
"No? Not yet. Was just about to, though."
"Were you going to?"
"You already know the answer. Why else would I bring her here if I wasn't going to slit her throat?"
At least it wasn't the worst case. The woman was still alive. Locking eyes with Kim Ho-yeon once more, Kang Jae-ha asked flatly about something else.
"You've got an 'ability', don't you?"
"Sure do. So you've got one too, Commander?"
"What is it."
"Come on, even if you are the Commander, I can't just lay my cards out like that. This isn't the Mercenary Corps."
"......"
"Ugh, scary. Relax your face a little. Fine, I'll give you a hint? If I feel like it, nobody can find me. Even if I get caught, I'm not really caught."
Kim Ho-yeon giggled. What a nuisance.
That was when it happened.
【Comrade encounter confirmed.】
【The comrade (subordinate) has awakened thanks to Kang Jae-ha-nim's achievement of the Other World objective.】
A female voice, one familiar to Kang Jae-ha but a first for Kim Ho-yeon, began speaking to both of them. In that moment, Kang Jae-ha looked at Kim Ho-yeon's eyes. He knew those eyes all too well.
'He's lost it.'
Full of vitality, but it was vitality for slaughter. He was already miles from anything resembling normal. He'd crossed the line long ago. Victims and a dead body alike had come from Kim Ho-yeon's hands. That lady would be the third.
'His 'ability' is probably stealth-type.'
He could guess, but it was hard to be certain. It might be a different ability entirely. The situation was too precarious to gamble on uncertainty.
'Handing him over to the police is iffy too.'
Even if they bound him and turned him in, there was a strong chance he'd use his 'ability' to escape. Things would go quiet for a while, but Kim Ho-yeon would go right back to killing. Just like now. Avoiding Kang Jae-ha as much as possible. The dead and the victims would keep piling up. By then, what could have been nipped in the bud would become a full-blown disaster. And maybe even impossible to stop.
Jae-ha looked at the unconscious woman.
"......"
Kang Jae-ha had to make a decision. Jae-ha glanced behind him. Lee Chan-hoo gave a small nod. His eyes were saying it.
'That Kim Ho-yeon, he's already become a monster.'
Regardless of any of that, the female voice continued.
【'Absolute Obedience' is now applied to the comrade (subordinate) who has encountered the Commander, toward Kang Jae-ha.】
Kim Ho-yeon tilted his head and asked Kang Jae-ha.
"'Absolute Obedience'? Commander, what's that? What's 'Absolute Obedience'?"
"......"
As if Jae-ha would answer. Instead, he said something else. No, it was an order. To stop Kim Ho-yeon with 'Absolute Obedience'.
"Kim Ho-yeon, hand over the woman."
Kim Ho-yeon smirked and pressed the sashimi knife even harder against the lady's throat. Order refused.
"Nah? She's mine. If you want to have some fun too, Commander, go find your own prey..."
Mid-sentence, Kim Ho-yeon flinched. Because his heart hurt. What the? His hands were even starting to tremble. The grin wiped from his face, Kim Ho-yeon tilted his head.
"Commander, something's. Something's wrong right now."
"What is."
Kang Jae-ha answered, taking a step closer.
"No, my heart right now..."
"Your heart what."
Another step. And then, the female voice again.
【Should the comrade (subordinate) commit betrayal, treason, or similar acts against the Commander, it will be regarded as a violation of the applied 'Absolute Obedience', resulting in death.】
Kim Ho-yeon's heart clenched tighter.
But Jae-ha didn't give him time to understand.
-Thwack!
Kang Jae-ha lunged at Kim Ho-yeon without warning. Kim Ho-yeon flinched. In that split second, he saw Jae-ha's eyes. Killing intent beyond measure. I'm going to die. A cold sensation, and Kim Ho-yeon reflexively raised the sashimi knife. Defensive instinct. Built up over more than ten years in another world.
In an instant, Kim Ho-yeon's sashimi knife shot toward Kang Jae-ha's face.
This fucking Commander bastard is attacking me?
But then.
"...Huh?"
The sashimi knife didn't graze Jae-ha's face. Because just before it reached striking distance, Kang Jae-ha's movement had stopped. A thoroughly deliberate trajectory. Thanks to that, the knife sliced through empty air, but Kim Ho-yeon had unmistakably targeted Kang Jae-ha. Intended to harm him.
Utterly impassive, Jae-ha murmured to Kim Ho-yeon.
"Should've handed over the woman when I told you to."
"What?"
Even now, the guiding female voice had been speaking the entire time. It was just that, amid the chaos, it was only now properly registering in Kim Ho-yeon's ears.
【Furthermore, acts of harm against the Commander are also regarded as violations of 'Absolute Obedience', resulting in death. Please exercise caution.】
【This concludes the guidance. Good luck.】
With the female voice's "good luck" as the final word.
"Hk? Gghh... ack!"
Kim Ho-yeon collapsed to the floor.
*****
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