Chapter 1525 Caught (5)

Drip...

Drip.

Sounds of water droplets falling vividly registered in Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s hearing.

“Euh...”

A pained grunt leaked out of his mouth as he forced his unwilling eyelids open. It was hard, as if something heavy covered his eyes. However, he knew instinctively that he must open his eyes to look.

Throb!

The return of his consciousness awakened this throbbing pain in his chin.

My chin...? Is it still in one piece?

He couldn’t feel anything below his chin. This level of pain made no sense, considering the punch came from some loser-looking bastard who looked weak enough to get beaten up by a bloody chicken!

“Urgh... Kkeuh-euh...”

The first thing Jeong Myeong-Cheol saw after forcing his eyes open was darkness. Since he had been unconscious for a while, his eyes should have become attuned to this level of darkness, yet he still couldn’t make out anything in his surroundings.

Not even a ray of light leaked into this place. That seemed like the best description of this environment.

Where am I?

Jeong Myeong-Cheol urgently scanned his surroundings, but couldn’t figure out anything. The hints of silhouettes veiled in darkness informed him that he was inside but not much else.

“...! Aaaahhhk!”

He tried to move, only for sharp pain to shoot up from his wrists. Only then did he realize he was tied to a chair, with thick rope binding his torso and arms.

His bloodshot eyes urgently scanned his surroundings again.

Who is crazy enough to...!

Fear rapidly filled his heart.

D-damn it! But, how!

To think criminals could assault and kidnap people in broad daylight like this! Even though it happened at night! And confine their victim in a dark room like this? How could such a savage thing even happen in the Republic of Korea in this day and age?

Only the South American cartels would do something like this, or at least that was what Jeong Myeong-Cheol thought. How could his fellow Koreans kidnap him in the middle of Gangnam, of all places?!

N-no, I’ve got to calm down!

Jeong Myeong-Cheol sucked in a deep breath.

It’s impossible to do something like this without leaving evidence behind!

Seoul’s Gangnam district was littered with who-knows-how-many CCTV cameras, after all! Those things must’ve captured the footage of him in his car. Which meant the authorities should be able to trace the route used by his kidnappers, too!

Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s job from now on was to patiently wait for the police to come and rescue him. In the meantime, he must not agitate his kidnappers and make things worse for himself.

“Huff, huff! Fuu-hoooph!”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol sucked in large gulps of air. It didn’t feel like his lungs were damaged, yet he couldn’t stop himself from hyperventilating.

What’s going on?

Something contagious was gradually waking up from deep inside his gut to invade the rest of his body. He tried his best to ignore it, but this anxiety proved impossible to ignore or shake off.

Will... Will the cops even find me on time?

Jeong Myeong-Cheol bit his lip, hard. Cutting off all forms of contact and disappearing for a few days was something he often did. Which meant nobody would find it weird even if he went missing for three or four days.

So, for someone to have reported his kidnapping to the police already? Would something so miraculous even happen to him?

No, it wouldn’t...!

Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s bound hands began trembling pitifully.

Someone must’ve seen the kidnapping. Yes! There must be witnesses to the assault and kidnapping!

That had to be true. Just had to be! Otherwise, a truly terrible fate would be in store for him.

Who was that man, though?

Who would dare do this to him?!

No, wait. That’s not important right now.

He realized that the identity of his kidnapper—or kidnappers—was not important. No, what mattered was “why”; why did they even kidnap him in the first place?

Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s bloodshot eyes fearfully wandered around the darkened room.

Could it be money? Lots of money? However, what if that wasn’t it?

Wait... Maybe my organs?!

That didn’t seem right, either. If they were organ traffickers, they wouldn’t have left him all tied up like this. So, that couldn’t be it. Definitely not!

Then, what?! What do they want?!

The pressure on his mind ramped up rapidly. Staying all alone in a dark room while tied up, with anxiety constantly gnawing at his mind, began taking an indescribable toll on his mental strength. All kinds of thoughts and dreadful premonitions tormented Jeong Myeong-Cheol.

And so... How much time had passed since he woke up? Just as his brain had turned into mush from imagining all the worst possibilities...

Step, step, clomp, clomp...

The eerie silence of this darkened space was broken up by the echoes of footsteps. Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s half-faltering head shot up when he heard those noises.

The fear of unknown people approaching him was momentarily swept aside by the happiness of someone finally showing up. Being trapped in this darkness by himself turned out to be the most torturous experience he had gone through in life, after all!

Creeeak!

The door was roughly pushed open, then a man stepped inside. However, what he said next was something Jeong Myeong-Cheol would have never imagined hearing in a situation like this.

“What’s this? Who turned the lights off?”

The second man frowned slightly. “I did, Chief Lee.”

“Why?”

“Well, he was asleep, so I wanted him to have a good rest.”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s eyes powerfully quaked.

What the hell...? Are these f*ckers serious?!

These two men hadn’t even bothered to cover their faces. They simply waltzed in here without a care in the world and began cracking jokes with each other!

However, Jeong Myeong-Cheol couldn’t bring himself to mock these people’s amateurish actions. Because, he knew what it meant when the kidnappers weren’t hiding their faces from the victim.

Are they going to kill me?! Me?! But, why? What did I do to them to deserve death?!

Even as Jeong Myeong-Cheol shivered pitifully in terror, the two men continued to bicker with each other.

“What were you thinking, Mister Yi? What do you think will happen to the poor guy stuck in a dinky, dark room like this? You want him to go insane?”

“Sorry? But, uh, this is a standard way of handling things at my former workplace...?”

“Wha? Come on, now. It’s been so long since you left that place, yet you still haven’t thrown away those bad habits? Come back to the embrace of humanity, okay? Try to become human again.”

“...I don’t think you are in any position to tell me that, Chief Lee.”

“Wowsers, look at you! In your rebellious phase, eh? Keep that up, and I’m going to send you back to your former employers.”

“That’s not going to happen, Chief Lee! Because they will never accept me back!”

One of the bickering men glanced at Jeong Myeong-Cheol and smirked, then walked closer. “Oh, hey? Look at this bastard. Pretending to keep his eyes closed and all! Look, man. I know you can hear us.”

Slap, slap.

The man lightly slapped Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s cheeks. It wasn’t to cause pain, but as a way to wake him up.

“No use pretending before us, okay? Everyone in this building is supernaturally good at figuring stuff out like that, you see? Besides, do you have any idea who my friend is? He’s a torture specialist!”

The other man yelled in unhappiness. “Who’s a torture specialist, Chief Lee?! Who?! Stop inventing weird backgrounds for other people!”

“Huh? I thought everyone who worked for your organization was taught how to torture people?”

“Please don’t paint that hard-working government institution in such a negative light!”

“But isn’t that how all spy agencies like the Agency for National Security Planning operate?”

“Chief, that Agency closed its doors decades ago! Besides, I’m a former agent, okay? Former!”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol grew even more panicky while listening to this exchange. A torture specialist? The Agency for National Security Planning?!

Every word he heard sent chills down his spine.

While thinking that this place might be far more terrifying than he had bargained for, Jeong Myeong-Cheol nervously swallowed his saliva.

His parched lips cracked open, while his throat burned painfully.

“Wa... water. Water...”

“Oh, you want some water?” The man who slapped Jeong Myeong-Cheol looked back at his companion. “Did you bring water with you?”

“...Me?”

“Yeah, you. I guess you haven’t, then. Well, now...” The man smirked softly. “Let’s see how much of a humanitarian you are. Will you bring some water to a man who hasn't had a drop for over a day? Or will you tell him to suck it up?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? Hey, you!” The other man shouted at Jeong Myeong-Cheol. “Suck it up like a man!”

“Wow, you’re worse than me, aren’t you?”

The man, Lee Hyeon-Su, cackled in bemusement, then pulled out a bottle of water from his pocket. After unscrewing the lid, he slowly tipped the bottle onto Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s lips.

“Easy. Easy, now. Don’t drink too fast. It would be tragic if you choked to death because of some water, after all.”

“...”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol drank the water before coughing loudly and fitfully.

Lee Hyeon-Su continued to smirk at this sight. “You must’ve been thirsty, eh?”

With his thirst quenched now, Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s trembling eyes locked on Lee Hyeon-Su next. “W-who are you, mister?”

“Ohh? You’ve stopped swearing now? I guess you’ve finally figured out the situation you are in.”

Lee Hyeon-Su cackled away.

“I really thought you’d start hurling all sorts of f-bombs in our way, you know? I knew it. People with money really do know the secret source for a successful life.”

Lee Hyeon-Su pinched Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s cheek and playfully tugged at it. That might look like a mischievous prank, but Jeong Myeong-Cheol was in no state to laugh at his tormentor.

Lee Hyeon-Su glanced behind him at his companion, Yi Jong-Wuk, the former NIS agent. “What do you think, man?”

“About what, Chief Lee?”

“I’m talking about this guy. Doesn’t he look oh-so innocent?”

Yi Jong-Wuk smirked derisively. “Well, that’s how they all look at the start of their interrogation.”

Even the worst villain the world had ever seen would assume the face of an innocent man being wrongly accused of a crime as soon as they got thrown inside the NIS’s interrogation room. If anyone unaware saw that, they might assume that the NIS was the one persecuting innocent people.

Once they realized resistance was futile, these villainous people would desperately pretend to be innocent to the point of fooling even themselves.

What about things like criminals waging psychological warfare with the cops? Or the villain who could remain unfazed even after a secret apparatus of the government had taken them away?

Something like that only happens in movies, okay?

Reality tended to be several times more terrifying than fiction, after all!

Jeong Myeong-Cheol asked the two men with a clearly terrified voice. “W-why did you bring me here, mister? D-do you want money? If you want money, I can give you as much as you want. Please let me go. I will never talk to the police if you let me go now.”

“Calm down first, Mister Jeong Myeong-Cheol,” Lee Hyeon-Su grinned brightly. “If we wanted money, we would’ve kidnapped the chairman of a large company, not someone like you who barely has a few bucks left in your bank account. From what I heard, your chairman is also not a saint who will cough up the money to save you, either.”

“B-but... That...”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol couldn’t stop his head from nodding away in agreement.

What if the kidnappers demanded ransom from his grandfather?

That old fart will never cough up a dime for me!

The chairman of Taegwang Group—in other words, Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s grandfather—prioritized money over people, after all. That old fart would even deem his blood relatives worthless compared to his wealth!

Sure, he could have put up the money without too many complaints had Jeong Myeong-Cheol been someone with the potential to make up for the financial losses, and then some. However, the chairman’s evaluation of his grandson was not all that favorable right now.

“Besides, it’s not like we’re hurting for cash, you know?” The still-grinning Lee Hyeon-Su squatted before Jeong Myeong-Cheol, then patted the tied-up man on the shoulder. “I hope you get it now.”

“I... I don’t understand?”

“I’m trying to tell you that we don’t care about money, Mister Jeong. As long as we are not provoked, we will quietly hide in some remote corner and mind our own business. The goal of the people in this place... Well, most of them, anyway, is to spend their days idly, free from worries, rich or poor. Yes, these people wouldn’t have minded if they subsisted solely on weeds in some remote countryside or some such. However...!”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s voice grew icier as he talked.

“It’s weird, because some morons keep trying to provoke us. Even though we’re just minding our own business. Do you understand what I’m trying to say now?”

“...”

Lee Hyeon-Su continued to speak without caring about whether Jeong Myeong-Cheol had understood him or not. “That’s why we have no choice but to do this. I mean, a wannabe bully thought we’re pushovers, and had started provoking us. Verbally telling him to back off would never work, right? So, the only solution is to cut that wannabe’s limbs off to set an example. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Do you get it now?”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s eyes powerfully quaked. His instincts told him that this man wasn’t merely spewing empty threats right now.

“B-but, mister, I... I haven’t done anything to...”

“Nope, stop right there,” said Lee Hyeon-Su while standing up abruptly. “Keep your trap shut, okay? Our chairman is here.”

“S-sorry?”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol couldn’t understand. What did he even mean by that?

Clomp, clomp...!

A set of heavy footsteps echoed subtly within the corridor outside the doorway. Jeong Myeong-Cheol reflexively swallowed his saliva in nervousness again. Judging from how tense the two men looked right now, it seemed a real big fish was about to arrive.

Maybe this person held Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s fate in their hands? When his thoughts reached that far, Jeong Myeong-Cheol automatically tensed up and held his breath. And then...

Clomp!

Along with the weighty footsteps, a man entered the room.

“...Huh?”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s jaw fell when he recognized the face of this supposed big fish.

“It... It’s you?”

How could he not recognize this man, though? After all, hadn’t he seen this face numerous times on TV?! Whenever that stupid ad was on, that was?

“K-K-Kang Jin-Ho...?”

Jeong Myeong-Cheol’s confused and deflated voice echoed in this underground space.