Chapter 129: Recognition (2)

Translator: Dreamscribe

The 'Deja Vu' shown to Kang Jae-ha this time belonged to a new subordinate. The name was Jin Jong-hoon. Only, his condition didn't look particularly good. As Jae-ha's brow creased slightly, the 'Deja Vu' continued.

『"The meat's nice and fresh. Grade A, definitely Grade A."

Holding a scalpel, Jin Jong-hoon suddenly began dancing in front of the man lying on the operating table. He even hummed to himself. From the way he hummed, he seemed to be in quite a good mood.

"Whew, this part right here is always the best."

After waving the scalpel through the air like a conductor's baton, Jin Jong-hoon stopped dancing and stroked the man's head.

"What a relief, that I can still cut flesh open over on this side."

He set the scalpel down, shrugged off the short padded jacket he was wearing, and put on a white gown. He put on a mask too. Then he picked the scalpel back up. Stepping toward the man, he smirked.

"Alright, then. Shall we harvest some meat?"

The mask hid his mouth, but Jin Jong-hoon's eyes curved into crescents. Proof that he was smiling. Humming to himself, he moved the scalpel. Soon, a soft slicing sound could be heard. The sound of something being split open.』

The 'Deja Vu' cut off there. Kang Jae-ha's vision returned to the MEG conference room packed with his subordinates. He was back in reality. Kang Jae-ha's expression was grave. A murderous glint entered his eyes as he went back over the subordinate he had just seen in the Deja Vu.

'Jin Jong-hoon.'

It was a face he knew all too well. Jin Jong-hoon had been the Medic responsible for the medical side of the Mercenary Corps. In other words, if anyone could be called a Healer, it was him.

'He seemed a little crazy, but he was damn good at what he did.'

In Kang Jae-ha's judgment, he too was a useful asset. Quite a few mercenaries had walked away alive because of Jin Jong-hoon's hands. Dissections had been his job as well, of course. In any case, Kang Jae-ha drew his conclusions from what he had seen in the Deja Vu.

'No way he's performing dissections over here. That meat he was talking about has to mean human organs.'

It reeked of Human Trafficking. From the way he moved and the way he talked, it clearly wasn't his first time, and before the job, Jin Jong-hoon had unmistakably been enjoying himself.

And that motion of Jin Jong-hoon laying his hand over the victim's stomach, the way he closed both eyes.

'That'd be his 'Ability'.'

Jin Jong-hoon's 'Ability'. ' It was probably some kind of 'Ability' that let him check the condition of internal organs, or something along those lines. Either way, Jin Jong-hoon was a slightly different breed, but he was clearly plenty unhinged too.

Around then, the subordinates chattering nearby fell quiet.

"......"

"......"

Because they had noticed the Commander's expression had darkened. Recognizing that something was off, the subordinates shut their mouths, and Kang Jae-ha rose from his seat and explained about Jin Jong-hoon.

Then Kang Jae-ha's gaze turned to Lee Chan-hoo.

"Jin Jong-hoon. Where the hell is that bastard right now."

Same time.

It was nearly midnight. A black van pulled up in front of an abandoned building in a remote spot. Location, out toward Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province.

There were hardly any people around, and maybe because it was a winter night, the place was flat-out bleak. A look inside the car showed a man with long hair tied back at the nape of his neck. The man in the brown padded jacket was Jin Jong-hoon, the new subordinate Kang Jae-ha had seen through 'Deja Vu'.

Having parked, Jin Jong-hoon hummed quietly to himself as he gathered up this and that inside the car.

Roughly five minutes later, just as Jin Jong-hoon was about to get out, his phone rang. He put it to his ear, and a soft male voice reached him.

"Jin Jong-hoon, where are you right now?"

"Me? Came to make some meat. Where else?"

"Call me when you're finished with the job."

"Yeah, yeah, I know-"

Apparently familiar with the caller, Jin Jong-hoon ended the brief conversation and stepped out of the van. The cold February air greeted him. As though savoring the moment, Jin Jong-hoon breathed in the freezing air.

"Hsssss, haaa."

Not once, but several times over. Satisfied, he moved slowly toward the abandoned building ahead. Even while walking, Jin Jong-hoon hummed that distinctive tune of his and rolled his shoulders faintly. He looked like a crazy bastard on the verge of some pleasure. As though determined to wring every drop out of this moment, Jin Jong-hoon climbed the stairs slowly.

Before long, a glass door came into view.

Roughly ten minutes had passed between the car and here.

When Jin Jong-hoon opened the glass door, a makeshift operating room spread out before him. Out of habit, Jin Jong-hoon checked the operating table first. A man stripped down to his underwear lay there, still as a corpse.

How to put it, he almost looked like an offering.

Smiling down at the offering, Jin Jong-hoon pulled on his gloves softly and slowly, as if about to undertake something sacred, then laid his right hand over the man's stomach. He closed his eyes, and a few seconds later he murmured with a smile.

"The meat's nice and fresh. Grade A, definitely Grade A."

He suddenly began to dance. The movements suggested classical music playing somewhere in his head. Nothing violent, all unhurried. The scalpel in Jin Jong-hoon's hand had become a conductor's baton, and Jin Jong-hoon swept back and forth across the operating room, humming as he went.

He appeared to think it was beautiful, but it was nothing short of a lunatic's fit.

He must have been enjoying himself properly, because he lost all track of time, and when Jin Jong-hoon snapped back to himself, he checked the clock. Time to begin. He shrugged off the padded jacket, put on the white gown, and pulled on a mask. He picked up the scalpel he had set down.

He stroked the offering's head.

"What a relief, that I can still cut flesh open over on this side."

His eyes curved into crescents.

"Alright, then. Shall we harvest some meat?"

Excitement flooding both eyes, Jin Jong-hoon moved the scalpel in his hand. Its destination was the offering's abdomen.

The scalpel was a hair away from touching the offering's stomach.

Out of nowhere.

-Vroooooom!

The faint sound of a car engine came from outside the building. It wasn't clear, only distant, but it definitely reached Jin Jong-hoon's ears. He froze. The smile that had covered his face vanished in an instant.

Slowly turning his head, Jin Jong-hoon murmured quietly.

"......Nobody's supposed to be coming."

His expression went blank, and small amount of killing intent entered his eyes. Or perhaps tension. The scalpel that had been about to cut open the sacrifice's abdomen immediately became Jin Jong-hoon's weapon. Gripping it tightly, Jin Jong-hoon put the sacrifice on the operating table out of his mind and carefully moved toward the window while keeping his footsteps silent.

The moment he peeked outside through the window, his eyes widened sharply.

"...!!!"

Because parked beside his own car was a van he had never seen before. In that instant, goosebumps rose along both of Jin Jong-hoon's arms.

Someone had come.

Who?

No matter how much he thought about it, there was no one who should have been coming. Jin Jong-hoon's tension swelled severalfold. He sensed danger. Nothing like this had ever happened before.

"Fuck, I don't know. I'll get out of here first."

It might already be too late. Still, Jin Jong-hoon meant to get out of this operating room as fast as he possibly could. He spun around and was just about to run toward the glass door when.

-Tap, tap, tatatap!

Noise came from beyond the glass door. The sound of someone climbing the stairs. Whoever it was, they were coming. Fast, too. It sounded like they were taking at least two or three steps at a time.

Jin Jong-hoon tightened his grip on the scalpel even further as he stared at the glass door and muttered.

"...That's not just one person."

Judging from the noise reaching his ears, there were at least several people. It was already too late to charge out of the operating room. At that point, Jin Jong-hoon grasped at one possibility.

"Could it be... did the 'Chairman' send them?"

But that hope quickly died. The man who had been humming happily over his sacrifice was nowhere to be seen now. Urgency filled Jin Jong-hoon's entire body as he glanced toward the window behind him.

"Tch, too high."

He had planned to jump if it was a manageable height, but that was impossible. Jumping from here would definitely shatter both his legs. And if his legs broke, there would be no point in running. They would catch him in no time. It was pointless.

In the end, there was only one answer.

-Swoosh.

Hide for now. Jin Jong-hoon was just about to move toward the most secluded corner he could find when the glass door suddenly swung open violently.

Jin Jong-hoon flinched.

The interesting part was.

"...Huh??"

Jin Jong-hoon's reaction. The moment the glass door opened and he saw the monster barging inside, shock filled his eyes. Not the shock of fear. The shock of seeing something completely unexpected.

"Hey!! You!!"

Because the monster who had barged in was none other than Go Chun-seok. A comrade from the Mercenary Corps had appeared out of nowhere. And not just anyone, that beast who had torn across battlefields at the head of the vanguard. But Go Chun-seok wasn't the end of it.

Three more people appeared behind Go Chun-seok.

Jang Tae-san, Lee Chan-hoo, and even Ryu Hyuk. Jin Jong-hoon still didn't know the names they used on this side, but perhaps because so many former comrades had suddenly appeared.

"Y-you guys, what are you doing here?!"

Much of the tension vanished from the face of the long-haired Jin Jong-hoon. Instead, a faint smile appeared. His expression held delight, fascination, and surprise. It wasn't strange. Four comrades he had never expected to see had suddenly barged in all at once.

Go Chun-seok, Jang Tae-san, Lee Chan-hoo, and Ryu Hyuk, on the other hand.

"......"

"......"

They showed no particular reaction and offered no greeting, simply staring steadily at Jin Jong-hoon. A strange atmosphere hung over the standoff. It lasted for about ten seconds. The first to move was Jang Tae-san, whose face was as hard as the Terminator's.

He glanced toward the makeshift operating room and slowly walked over. Even then, he didn't lower his guard against Jin Jong-hoon.

Soon, he reached the sacrifice lying on the operating table. No, the man. After checking his condition, Jang Tae-san looked at his comrades and nodded.

"He's fine."

It meant the man was unharmed. Go Chun-seok and Ryu Hyuk looked relieved, and the narrow-eyed Lee Chan-hoo let out a breath of relief.

"Whew."

Then he met the eyes of Jin Jong-hoon, whose smile had deepened with delight, and spoke. Lee Chan-hoo's voice was cold.

"Jin Jong-hoon. So the guy in charge of the Mercenary Corps' medical work has been pulling disgusting crap like this?"

"...Disgusting? You even know my name. Ah, no, more importantly!"

Jin Jong-hoon suddenly shouted and fired a question back at Lee Chan-hoo. Of course, the scalpel remained in his right hand.

"Who the hell are you guys?! Where did you suddenly drop in from? You scared the shit out of me??"

Jin Jong-hoon was fascinated, but he also found the situation bizarre. They knew this location, and even his name? As though something had occurred to him, Jin Jong-hoon asked Lee Chan-hoo, who stood a few steps away. The word 'Chairman' was already floating through his mind.

"Did the Vice-Commander send you, by any chance? To keep an eye on me?"

Lee Chan-hoo's brow narrowed. But it smoothed out quickly.

"......"

Sharp-witted as he was, Lee Chan-hoo.

'...Vice-Commander?'

He judged it better not to react much here. The word 'Vice-Commander' nagged at him badly, but silence was the correct answer. That way the other man, meaning Jin Jong-hoon, would most likely draw his own conclusions and run his mouth all on his own. And sure enough, Jin Jong-hoon decided things exactly as he pleased.

"The Vice-Commander sent you, right? Ah, dammit, I knew it! There's no other reason you'd be here, is there?"

His tension must have eased, because the strength went out of Jin Jong-hoon's right hand a little. The one holding the scalpel.

"Haa... you seriously scared me. Sure, I like to have a little fun when I work, but sending four whole guys to watch me?? Isn't the Vice-Commander going a bit far? But when did you guys join up with the Vice-Commander? Recently, right? I've never seen..."

That was when it happened. A cold, flat male voice reached Jin Jong-hoon.

"Vice-Commander?"

It wasn't Lee Chan-hoo's. Nor Jang Tae-san's, Go Chun-seok's, or Ryu Hyuk's, obviously. It came from somewhere unfamiliar. And yet that voice was anything but unfamiliar to Jin Jong-hoon. He knew it far too well. That sensation of a single word pressing down on the mercenaries, himself included.

Jin Jong-hoon instinctively felt his entire body shrink back.

"Huh?"

Lee Chan-hoo, Go Chun-seok, Jang Tae-san, and Ryu Hyuk, who stood in the direction Jin Jong-hoon was looking, suddenly moved aside. Like the Red Sea parting. Through the opening.

-Tap, tap.

Quiet footsteps echoed. Soon, an expressionless man stepped inside. Commander Kang Jae-ha. A dry gaze seemingly devoid of emotion. The moment Jin Jong-hoon's eyes met the Commander's, he froze. His fingertips trembled. No voice came out. His mouth merely opened and closed like a goldfish.

Jin Jong-hoon's reaction was a complete one-eighty from when he had seen Lee Chan-hoo and the others.

'Th, the Commander, for real??!'

To Jin Jong-hoon, the Commander was a variable capable of overturning anything, and depending on who was on the receiving end, an outright disaster. That man was far too dangerous, over there and over here alike. Overcome with fear, Jin Jong-hoon backed away without meaning to. He was scared enough to piss himself.

"......!!"

No, he had already leaked a little.

Regardless, Kang Jae-ha, one hand shoved into his pocket, spoke to Jin Jong-hoon. His tone was plain, but to Jin Jong-hoon.

"Vice-Commander. Go on, keep talking."

It was nothing short of terrifying.

*****

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