Chapter 11 : Seoul Lockdown (Part-2)

“Let’s switch routes to the West Coast Expressway.”

“Hey, wait a sec…”

“What?”

“I heard they’ve set up checkpoints at the entrance to that expressway.”

“What? Who said that?”

“Social media…”

Yuri swiftly navigated through her device to access posts that were specifically tagged with the term “checkpoint,” displaying them for him to see.

The presence of checkpoints was already a significant concern, but it was alarming to note that they had also stationed armored vehicles in close proximity, ready for action if required.

In a situation where the roads became too dangerous or congested, those armored vehicles could easily be employed to completely block off the road, restricting any movement.

How could one possibly expect to advance or make it through with nothing more than a truck at their disposal?

It was clear that all pathways leading out of Seoul had been secured, effectively sealing off access.

This stark reality was the conclusion Cheol-woo had to come to terms with.

“What do we do? Looks like every road out of Seoul has a checkpoint now! They’re even searching people on high-speed rail!”

“We’ll have to give up on land routes. The sun’s going down soon anyway, so let’s rest for now.”

“Huh? If land’s out, shouldn’t we try to stow away by sea right away?”

“Ships don’t leave at night. You blend in during the day when there’s a lot of traffic. With thermal imaging, you’d be completely visible at night. That whole stowaway-by-night thing—that’s just a media myth. And besides, you need to rest.”

“Me? Why… ah…”

Only after Cheol-woo held her hand did she realize the intensity of the moment’s weight.

Yuri’s hand was trembling like a leaf in the wind, fragile and quivering in response to an unseen force.

When had it started? She found herself reflecting, pondering deeply over the timeline of her emotions, realizing she hadn’t even noticed the gradual build-up.

Ah… It had been like this ever since she’d cut off that man’s head, a moment that felt both distant and eerily immediate, forever altering her sense of peace.

“I’ll get us a room. You should get some real rest.”

“Just me?”

“I have to keep an eye on the car.”

“I’m scared. Sleep with me.”

“Then we can both sleep in the car.”

“….”

The vehicle surged forward along the dimly lit road, where the last remnants of daylight were fading into the horizon.

Throughout the entire journey to the hotel, Cheol-woo remained silent, his expression unreadable and his demeanor unyielding.

There weren’t any clichéd reassurances or platitudes offered, such as “the man she had killed was someone deserving” or “because of your actions, I am alive today.”

In hindsight, Yuri felt a sudden pang in her chest, a hiccup escaping her lips as she came to the staggering realization that Cheol-woo had been taking lives without a moment’s hesitation since the early hours of the day.

This was evidently not his first experience with such a grim reality.

The pressing question lingered in her mind: how many lives had he extinguished up to this point?

If she found herself in similar circumstances, taking as many lives, would she also develop the same emotional detachment he seemed to possess?

She was uncertain.

She just didn’t know…

She’d never pitied her little brother more than she did now.

“Damn. What kind of batshit crazy bitch is this?”

At the Gyeongbu-Dongtan Tunnel,

Looking into the closed-off tunnel, Chief Yoo clenched his jaw in anger.

A vehicle pileup followed by electric car explosions and fire.

It was definitely a serious accident, but it wasn’t at the level of a catastrophic disaster.

At most, once the fire was out, they could just remove the burned-out cars and get traffic moving again.

The firefighters and transportation officials on the scene all thought the same.

So why was HQ forbidding anyone from entering the tunnel?

“Whoa, whoa! You can’t go in there! We have direct orders from above—”

“We’re the ones those orders came for.”

Chief Yoo tossed his business card with a flick and brushed past the protests, entering the tunnel.

As soon as they stepped into the darkness, his team began assembling firearms from their bags.

“Still no contact with the pursuit unit?”

“No, sir. All communication has been cut off.”

“Damn it…”

After tenaciously pursuing Han, the president of Oriental Shipping, they finally found footage of him on a traffic camera and dispatched Team Leader Kim’s unit after him.

Because of the Min Cheol-woo incident, they had to recall half the pursuit team back to Seoul.

Han’s remaining forces weren’t much of a threat anyway, and with all roads covered by checkpoints, it seemed only a matter of time before they caught him.

But the moment they pulled back, Team Leader Kim had sent a distress signal.

And now, with all comms down, this was the situation in the tunnel.

“Kill everything in there except our own.”

“Yes, sir.”

Flashlights mounted on rifles lit the way as the team moved in.

Everyone who could escape already had.

Everyone else was dead.

In the seemingly quiet tunnel, something rustled.

It darted quickly through the shadows, trying to avoid the light—

Until the flashlight held by Yoo Chief landed on it, revealing a pair of bloodshot eyes.

Tat-tat-tat-tatat!

The point man’s carbine roared.

Blood sprayed everywhere as the red-eyed figure was torn to shreds.

But it stood again with a groan and charged, forcing the point man to fumble with his reload.

“Move.”

Schlick.

With one clean stroke of his blade, Yoo decapitated the red-eyed attacker.

He inspected the twitching, bullet-riddled corpse, then glanced at the ruined blade—already near useless.

As expected, it was the blue drug again.

“Switch to AP rounds. Aim for the head.”

“Yes, sir.”

Red-eyes kept charging at them as they advanced, mindless and violent, caring nothing for the bullets ripping into them.

After downing three more, they finally spotted the vehicle Han had used.

“Search it. And bring back all our people’s bodies. Every last one.”

Corpses were strewn like garbage throughout the tunnel.

Kneeling beside one with a mangled face, Yoo rolled up the wrist and checked the watch.

Team Leader Kim.

No doubt.

“Bastards…” he muttered, slipping the watch into his pocket.

Just then, a shout came from inside the panic room.

“We found someone!”

“Who? Bring them to me.”

“She was crouching in the car. We checked the other vehicles—this is the only one.”

“P-please! Don’t kill me!”

A woman was dragged out by her hair, coughing and dropping an oxygen mask.

She wasn’t Han.

Yoo knelt to her eye level, lightly slapping her cheek.

“Hey. Who are you?”

“I-I’m Kim Mi-young!”

“…Who the hell is that?”

“I—I work at the front desk, in accounting…”

Maybe she let her guard down because Yoo was a woman.

But the moment Kim’s face relaxed, Yoo grabbed her jaw and squeezed hard.

“Where’s Han?”

“CEO Han Siyeon… I-I don’t know! She suddenly gave us all pills and told us to jump out of the car. But I saw the others start… changing, and I got scared…”

Yoo felt a pounding at the base of her skull.

The drugs had wiped out Kim’s entire squad.

And Han had escaped in the chaos.

She had the nerve to drug her employees and send them against the pursuit team, but why not sooner?

Why wait until Yoo had pulled half the troops away?

The answer was obvious.

“Director Park… goddammit. What are we supposed to do with that bastard?”

Park’s leak about the Min Cheol-woo incident must’ve reached Han.

She realized reinforcements would be pulled from the pursuit team and made her move.

No updates from the checkpoints meant she didn’t try to break through them.

No… She probably doubled back.

Back to Seoul.

“Clean this place up before dawn.”

“By… by tomorrow morning?”

“You questioning me?”

“N-no, ma’am! We’ll scrub everything!”

“And as for tracking Han… that’s our job too now, huh?”

Eliminating Han was originally the primary mission assigned to Team 1.

This stipulation implied that when they failed to successfully eliminate her, the subsequent tasks of cleanup and tracking her movements were also delegated to them.

Now they found themselves in pursuit of both Han and Min Cheol-woo, needing to allocate their resources and focus to two targets.

This complicated situation arose solely because of Director Park.

Despite the chain of events leading to this predicament, when the inevitable blame was assigned, it was unlikely that it would fall upon Park—rather, it would unjustly rest on her shoulders.

Merely contemplating this scenario caused Yoo’s blood pressure to rise sharply.

Her heart raced with anxiety, and her hands shook with frustration.

She was overcome with an overwhelming urge to lash out and punch something in an attempt to relieve the mounting tension.