Chapter 130: Recognition (3)

Translator: Dreamscribe

Four comrades had suddenly appeared. Jin Jong-hoon had assumed without a doubt that the Vice-Commander had sent them, but the man who appeared before him shattered that assumption to pieces.

Because the one who had appeared was the Commander.

Jin Jong-hoon's entire body froze from Kang Jae-ha's brief words and gaze alone, and he realized he'd pissed himself a little.

Because the Commander showing up was the last thing he had ever expected.

Why was that man here?

His brain short-circuited, Jin Jong-hoon stood there with his mouth slightly open, unable to take any action at all. And all he had done was lay eyes on Commander Kang Jae-ha.

That was how absolute the Commander's authority and power were within the Mercenary Corps.

Jin Jong-hoon's reaction was proof of that.

In any case, the Commander's appearance blew every one of Jin Jong-hoon's conclusions apart. The Vice-Commander wasn't the one who had sent the comrades. At that point Jae-ha, who had been watching Jin Jong-hoon without a trace of emotion, spoke again.

"Jin Jong-hoon. I told you to talk. About the Vice-Commander."

Jin Jong-hoon swallowed hard, and the scalpel in his grip slipped from his fingers before he knew it. Startled by the sound of it ringing out, he stammered his answer.

"C-C-Co-Commander??"

"That's right."

Jin Jong-hoon rubbed both eyes.

"Hold on, whoa... the Commander, seriously?"

"Surprised?"

"Massively. So surprised I almost threw up......Commander, you were in this world too??"

His fingertips were still trembling.

"Ugh, I think I pissed myself a little."

As he looked down at his pants, a woman's voice suddenly rang out. Kang Jae-ha heard it as well, of course.

【Comrade encounter confirmed.】

Jin Jong-hoon flinched.

【'Absolute Obedience' is now applied to the comrade (subordinate) who has encountered the Commander, toward Kang Jae-ha.】

【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.】

Jin Jong-hoon listened to the woman's announcement all the way to the end, glanced around at the four comrades standing before him, and then.

"Commander."

He met Kang Jae-ha's eyes again.

"Th-That woman's voice just now. Is it for real?? 'Absolute Obedience'??"

Kang Jae-ha, his face as expressionless as ever, nodded.

"That's right."

Perhaps he thought Jin Jong-hoon was standing a little too far away, because Jae-ha gave him an order.

"We'll get to the whole story later. Come here. Quit cowering."

"...Sir? Ah... yes."

The mischievous air had vanished from Jin Jong-hoon before anyone noticed. Now he looked like nothing more than a helpless herbivore crushed beneath the Commander's presence. Jin Jong-hoon cautiously moved forward until he stood before Kang Jae-ha.

About one step away.

Kang Jae-ha gazed steadily at Jin Jong-hoon before speaking.

"So, the Vice-Commander. Keep talking."

"Uh, about what?"

"Are you with the Vice-Commander right now?"

From that point on, Jin Jong-hoon decided.

'For now, don't get cocky. This is the Commander we're talking about.'

Even with a forced smile on his face, he obediently followed the Commander's lead.

"That's right. Ah, though I don't know if I'd say we're together. It's more like... mutual cooperation?"

"Mutual cooperation."

"Yes. Th-that's right. Haha."

Kang Jae-ha looked at Jin Jong-hoon for a moment.

'He was always a little frivolous, but he wasn't this much of a piece of trash.'

His gaze shifted toward the man still lying on the operating table like a sacrifice. Jae-ha's eyes were ice-cold as he looked at him.

"You call digging around in someone else's organs mutual cooperation?"

"......"

"Hey, answer me. Is that right? Mutual cooperation?"

Jin Jong-hoon's body began trembling on its own as the piss from earlier threatened to come out all over again.

"I-it's just business, business. I don't have anything personal against that guy."

In an instant, killing intent appeared in Kang Jae-ha's eyes.

"Choose your answers carefully. Keep that up and you're dead."

"!!"

Jin Jong-hoon's eyes darted around frantically.

"No, I... I was just telling you exactly how it is."

He'd gone off the deep end. That was how it looked to Kang Jae-ha. Jin Jong-hoon was a different breed from Kim Ho-yeon and Yang Na-hee, but there was the same rotten look in his eyes.

'So slaughter has literally turned into business for him.'

He'd made a habit of bloodshed under the excuse that it was business. Kang Jae-ha looked over the scalpel on the floor and the makeshift operating room before asking Jin Jong-hoon.

"Were you a doctor?"

Jin Jong-hoon scratched his head as he answered.

"I used to be. Not anymore. B-but if I'd known you were here doing this too, Commander, I would've joined you instead."

"Me too?"

"Yes, if I'd met you sooner, of course I would've joined you, Commander!"

At that, Kang Jae-ha instinctively realized something. There was a high chance Jin Jong-hoon and the Vice-Commander weren't simply working as a pair, but belonged to a larger organization.

Kang Jae-ha soon spoke again.

"The Vice-Commander. What's his name?"

"His name? Uh, um, huh? The Vice-Commander, what is his name? I've never actually heard it. Now that I think about it, I don't know his age or anything like that either?"

"......"

He wasn't lying. Jin Jong-hoon's eyes made that clear, and after hearing the warning about 'Absolute Obedience', he wasn't gutsy enough to lie anyway.

'Hmm, as expected, the Vice-Commander is keeping his name and personal information completely hidden. Well, he's not stupid enough to go blabbing about himself.'

Kang Jae-ha changed the subject at once.

"What is the Vice-Commander doing with you, and where is he now?"

He added a warning.

"Don't even think about giving me some vague bullshit."

"I know, I know. It's not like you're asking anything difficult. I don't want to die because of 'Absolute Obedience'. The Vice-Commander is the 'Chairman' right now."

"Chairman?"

"Yes. Wow, but the Vice-Commander would probably faint from shock if he found out the Commander was here too."

"So he doesn't know I'm here?"

"Of course not! Just look at how shocked I was to see you, that answers it, doesn't it?? The second the Vice-Commander laid eyes on you he'd piss his......Khh!!"

Mid-babble, Jin Jong-hoon suddenly clutched his head. A strange groan spilled out after it.

"Gkk!!"

Jin Jong-hoon shook violently, and then all at once.

"Guuuuuh–"

He pitched face-first onto the floor. Only the whites of his eyes showed as he convulsed. It happened in a blink, and Lee Chan-hoo and Go Chun-seok moved to grab him. But Kang Jae-ha stopped them.

"Don't touch him."

"Sir??!"

"I said don't touch him. It could be dangerous for you."

"Dangerous?"

Instead of the subordinates who had frozen in place, Jae-ha crouched down and checked Jin Jong-hoon's condition. By then, Jin Jong-hoon's convulsions had stopped, and blood trickled steadily from his nose.

Kang Jae-ha let out a short grunt.

"He's alive. Might as well be dead, though."

Jae-ha knew this condition all too well. He'd seen it more times than he could count on the battlefield.

"His mind's been shattered. Meaning his brain is wrecked."

In other words, he was practically a vegetable.

A short while later.

Lee Chan-hoo, who had been checking the area around the makeshift operating room, looked down at the brain-wrecked Jin Jong-hoon and murmured.

"Don't tell me this guy... did he end up like this because of the Commander's 'Absolute Obedience'?"

Kang Jae-ha, still crouched and looking down at Jin Jong-hoon, shook his head.

"No. He obeyed me. He didn't attack me either. And my 'Absolute Obedience' doesn't destroy the mind. It just kills you. Lee Chan-hoo, you've seen it yourself."

"Well, that's true."

Jae-ha kept looking quietly down at Jin Jong-hoon, who was little more than a corpse, and went on.

"It's a different type. Something that destroys the mind, like Kamijo Yuu's 'Ability'."

This time it was Go Chun-seok who asked.

"How did that 'Ability' trigger? Is there some other bastard in the area, maybe?"

Tension abruptly spread among the subordinates, but Kang Jae-ha calmed them down.

"There's nobody around. I checked with Sensing several times over. There's no one here but us."

Kang Jae-ha had in fact swept the area a good few times with the 'Ability' Sensing. Which meant there was no one within 30m.

Jang Tae-san soon threw out a question mark.

"Then what on earth..."

The Commander laid out his own guess.

"We have to assume someone planted an 'Ability' on Jin Jong-hoon. It seems like an 'Ability' that activates if Jin Jong-hoon violates some restriction tied to a person or situation, or if he divulges a secret."

Or... Kang Jae-ha stretched the word out and rose to his feet.

"The word 'Vice-Commander' itself might be the trigger."

Lee Chan-hoo chimed in.

"So it feels like if he freely spills secrets or says the word Vice-Commander, he just keels over. And you told us not to touch him because that 'Ability' might transfer to us."

"I'm not certain, but it never hurts to be careful."

"True. It could very well transfer to us too."

Kang Jae-ha stared down at Jin Jong-hoon, who had ended up becoming the sacrifice himself, and clicked his tongue inwardly.

'Tsk. Should I have approached this a little more carefully?'

He turned his gaze to the man on the operating table.

'No. If I'd been late, there would've been more victims. If anything was unavoidable, this was.'

Unfortunately, Jin Jong-hoon was effectively gone, but they had still gained something.

"So the Vice-Commander's around. In the same world."

And that Vice-Commander didn't know that Kang Jae-ha, the Commander, was here. Then there was the word 'Chairman' that Jin Jong-hoon had mentioned.d.

'Serving as a Chairman, huh...'

By now Lee Chan-hoo and the other subordinates were thinking back on the Vice-Commander. The Mercenary Corps' Vice-Commander had been the one man who could get a word or two in when Commander Kang Jae-ha went on a rampage. Jae-ha, recalling the Vice-Commander in the same way, spoke.

"He must have formed an organization."

Ryu Hyuk, standing with his arms crossed, nodded.

"Other comrades are probably with him. And that organization won't be like ours."

"Right. Looks like they're up to some shitty business..."

They had gone so far as to make Jin Jong-hoon, who had served as a Medic and Healer, carve out other people's organs. There was a good chance they were involved in all kinds of other shit as well. Jang Tae-san then offered his opinion.

"If we wait a while, won't someone come by?"

Kang Jae-ha answered.

"Maybe. But we have no idea who the Vice-Commander is with or what kind of 'Abilities' they have. Recklessly making contact with anyone would be a moronic move."

Jae-ha shrugged and changed the subject.

"Still, we are the ones with the advantage right now."

"The Vice-Commander doesn't know the Commander exists, but the Commander knows the Vice-Commander exists."

Quick on the uptake, Lee Chan-hoo answered, and Kang Jae-ha smiled faintly.

'And then there's Deja Vu. My other 'Abilities' are useful too, but when it comes to my subordinates, Deja Vu is the biggest advantage. Whether or not we have Deja Vu is what creates the gap between the Vice-Commander and me.'

Ryu Hyuk soon rubbed his chin.

"Isn't it possible that the Vice-Commander is aware of your existence, Commander, sir, and is keeping his distance regardless?"

Lee Chan-hoo was quicker with the answer.

"That's possible, but unlikely. If he knew about the Commander, he would've made some kind of move."

"Hm."

"He's bold enough to pull shit like this. If he knew the Commander was here, it'd be more than just an annoyance, wouldn't it? He would've tried to make contact, kept watch, or done something. And if he had, there's no way the Commander wouldn't have noticed. But it's been way too quiet for an entire year. More than anything, Jin Jong-hoon's reaction, and he seems to be one of the Vice-Commander's close associates, is evidence enough."

Kang Jae-ha listened to the two of them before speaking.

"Either way, it's better to move under the assumption that their side knows about me too. We should account for even the worst possible scenario."

In other words, they couldn't afford to let their guard down.

The key point was that the Vice-Commander was in the same world and that he too had built up an organization of some size. Its nature, of course, was nothing like Kang Jae-ha's 'MEG'. If they were putting their hands on other people's organs in an abandoned building this far out of the way, they had to be the sort that couldn't throw their weight around in the open.

Kang Jae-ha revised the plans in his head and instructed his subordinates.

"For now, all of you keep acting exactly as you have been."

It simply meant a slightly troublesome obstacle had appeared along their path. Nothing had changed all that much.

"First, we clear out of this scene."

Ryu Hyuk, the detective, raised a hand.

"I'll take care of the scene."

Normally, leaving it to Ryu Hyuk would've been the right choice, but Kang Jae-ha thought differently this time.

"No. Now that Jin Jong-hoon has ended up like this, the Vice-Commander's side will probably realize he came into contact with someone."

It was only a matter of time before the Vice-Commander learned what had happened to Jin Jong-hoon.

"It's better if we leave absolutely no clues and make it look like we had nothing to do with this."

If Ryu Hyuk handled the scene, there was a strong chance the Vice-Commander's side would find out about him.

'Though slipping Ryu Hyuk into the Vice-Commander's side might not be a bad scenario either, it's still a little too dangerous right now.'

On top of that, Ryu Hyuk showing up right on cue in a situation like this could only fuel suspicion.

'It'd be much better for him to show up at some completely unrelated time.'

Kang Jae-ha soon gave his subordinates their orders.

"We're just leaving as is."

He had decided not to give them even the slightest scrap of information.

*****

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