Chapter 16: The codename is Police. (3)

Jang Hoseop brought the hooded woman he had confined in the room.

I needed to hear more details about the situation at the department store.

I also had to cross-verify the information obtained through interrogation.

“But you guys aren’t police officers, are you?”

“Huh? Ah… That is. Um….”

The hooded woman asked, looking at Jang Hoseop.

Jang Hoseop stuttered.

He couldn’t even look at the hooded woman.

“It’s strange. What kind of police officer just kills people like that?”

This time, the hooded woman looked at me.

She said she knew that a Fundamental Skill was related to a person’s disposition.

“It doesn’t matter, though. Anyway… are you going to help me?”

She was speaking with a smile.

But the emotions conveyed didn’t match her smile at all.

‘Fear is one thing. But loneliness and despair?’

Her negative emotions were strong.

“Excuse me? Police Officer?”

When I didn’t answer, the hooded woman called me again.

I sent a signal to Jang Hoseop.

It meant he should talk to her.

“Uh… Oh, right! Hyungnim. You must be hungry, right? Shall we get something to eat?”

Jang Hoseop shot up from his seat.

Saying he’d look for a simple snack, he went behind his mother and hid.

He was avoiding my gaze.

“Aigoo… You little rascal.”

Aunt Sujeong shook her head.

Inevitably, I sat face to face with the hooded woman.

Fortunately, this woman’s voice wasn’t grating either.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s Lee Yuna.”

“Your age?”

“19… No, is that important right now?”

It is important.

Tone of voice, expression, gestures, and so on.

There’s a lot you can learn about a person through simple conversation.

“There’s something I want to confirm first. I heard they experimented with methods to Awaken Fundamental Skills at the department store. Is that true?”

“Yes. While hunting monsters.”

“And the results?”

“It’s not certain. Some Awaken after catching just one monster, while others don’t even after catching five.”

The hooded woman… No, Lee Yuna’s story matched the axe man’s.

The number of monsters needed for Awakening differs from person to person.

What’s certain is that there were no cases of Awakening without hunting monsters.

“Hyungnim, I think our guess is correct, isn’t it?”

“So far, yes.”

Jang Hoseop interjected into the conversation from a distance.

His gaze was fixed on me.

“What about attack skills? I heard it’s difficult to Awaken attack skills.”

“From what I’ve seen, it seems only people who aren’t in their right minds Awaken attack skills. That man you killed earlier, Officer, he had like 6 prior convictions… or something like that.”

This also matched Jang Hoseop’s guess.

“So, the conclusion was that Awakening attack skills is rare?”

“Yes. Of course, we… no, there aren’t many Awakened people at the department store either, so….”

The things Jang Hoseop and I had guessed from observing and experiencing various situations flowed from Lee Yuna’s mouth.

We continued to talk, focusing on the changes in the world, and soon moved on to the main topic.

“Ms. Lee Yuna, how can you help us?”

“Um… But why are you talking like that, Officer? Just speak comfortably.”

“This is comfortable for me. Please tell me.”

For the first time, Lee Yuna hesitated to answer.

“I don’t know….”

“Pardon?”

“I said I don’t know. I’ll do whatever you tell me, so please help me.”

Hearing her answer, I stood up from my seat and took off my clothes.

I took off my police uniform jacket and grabbed the hem of my shirt to take it off.

“Huh? Hyungnim! Wait a minute. No….”

Jang Hoseop, who had been rummaging through his backpack, rushed over.

Then he grabbed my shirttail.

“You take yours off too.”

“Pardon? No, what are you saying on our first meeting… My mom is here too.”

“We don’t have much time, so take it off quickly.”

Aunt Sujeong and Lee Yuna also stared at me with dumbfounded expressions.

I shook off Jang Hoseop’s hand and finished taking off my shirt.

“Ha… Really. Of course.”

Lee Yuna let out a sigh.

The despairing emotion I felt from her grew stronger.

Thinking it was strange, I handed her the clothes I had taken off.

“Try to get the bloodstains out first. With your skill.”

“Pardon?”

There were a few things to prepare before going to the department store.

One of them was clean clothes.

It was also to confirm Lee Yuna’s usefulness.

“Try doing laundry with your skill. What are you doing? I told you to take yours off too.”

“Ah… Laundry. Laundry… Hahaha.”

Jang Hoseop laughed dejectedly.

Lee Yuna stared at me with an expression of disbelief.

“How is it? Can you wash that?”

Jang Hoseop’s face turned red as he took off his jacket.

“Hyungnim… You know you’re a bit strange, right? The way you talk is a bit….”

I don’t know what he means by strange.

“No matter how strange I am, I can’t be as strange as you.”

“Pardon?”

Right now, at this moment.

We were not understanding each other.

---

I heard the detailed situation of the department store from Lee Yuna.

And why she was running away.

‘CEO of an entertainment agency, huh….’

Lee Yuna is an idol.

To be precise, she was an idol trainee who used to be a swimmer.

The day of the cataclysm was supposed to be her official debut through a music broadcast.

Representative Kim is the CEO of the agency Lee Yuna belonged to.

He had targeted Lee Yuna’s body.

Lee Yuna had quickly noticed his intentions and fled.

“Actually… my dad was also at the department store.”

“Your father?”

“Yes. He came to cheer for my music show performance and….”

Lee Yuna said, diligently doing laundry with her skill.

Aunt Sujeong was rolling up her sleeves and helping.

“My dad is having a harder time because of me. So I thought if I disappeared, maybe things would get a little better for him….”

Lee Yuna’s father had also Awakened a Fundamental Skill.

She said it was a production-type, and it seemed he was being overworked by Representative Kim.

Despite the intense labor, he couldn’t resist or run away because of Lee Yuna’s safety.

Ah, Lee Yuna had been hiding the fact that she had Awakened her skill.

“Are there many people like that?”

“Yes. There are some among the Fundamental Skill Awakeners too.”

Family, lovers, friends, etc.

Many people faced the cataclysm with their loved ones.

Representative Kim exploited that fact.

By holding their loved ones hostage to make them follow him.

He also controls people very strictly.

Even their eating, sleeping, and defecating.

“Hyungnim. Not all the Awakeners must be following Representative Kim sincerely.”

“Yeah. And it’s the same for the other people too.”

Lee Yuna quickly finished the laundry.

She moved her hands while talking, and at her gesture, streams of water thrashed like they were beating the laundry.

She seemed good at multitasking.

“I was angry when I said that earlier.”

“Yes.”

“More than the CEO… no, Representative Kim, I really hope you can at least rescue my dad.”

Lee Yuna changed her request.

“Won’t killing Representative Kim solve the problem?”

“That’s realistically impossible, isn’t it? That’s why.”

She thought getting her father out had a higher probability.

“My dad struggled a lot raising me alone. I really wanted to repay him once I debuted….”

Judging by the atmosphere, Aunt Sujeong shared the same opinion.

They saw killing Representative Kim as impossible.

The problem was that getting only Lee Yuna’s father out wouldn’t be easy either.

“Later tonight, if we quietly take care of the night watch….”

“No. We’ll get Representative Kim too.”

“Pardon?”

No matter how I thought about it, Representative Kim was dangerous.

The more I heard, the more he seemed like a person who would stop at nothing for his own benefit.

So, I thought he needed to be dealt with before he became stronger, before his power base grew larger.

“The Awakeners’ skills, what they look like, what’s on which floor… Anyway, please tell me everything you remember that’s noteworthy.”

Lee Yuna wrung the water out of the laundry with her skill.

Seeing that made my resolve even firmer.

“That’s a good ability.”

“Pardon?”

“It’ll be even more amazing if you level it up.”

As time passes, more people with such extraordinary skills will appear at the department store.

That means Representative Kim’s power will grow.

We once again reviewed the current status of Representative Kim’s forces and contemplated how to bring them down.

“Hyungnim. This really won’t be easy, will it? Whatever the method, everyone hangs on his every word.”

Jang Hoseop said, frowning.

“That group of men earlier. We beat them more easily than we thought, right?”

“Yes. That’s because you’re much stronger, Hyungnim….”

“It’s because those humans were careless. Why were they careless?”

“Uh… Because their numbers were greater?”

Jang Hoseop was right about that too.

“That’s also true. But it was because they thought we were police.”

“Huh? Ah! That’s right! They wouldn’t have expected the police to attack like such crazy bastards… Ah, I’m sorry. I’m not saying you’re a crazy bastard,

Hyungnim….”

It seemed like an absurd fight, but I saw a breakthrough.

“No, Hyungnim. Don’t tell me, asking her to do the laundry was also….”

After calming down Jang Hoseop, who was making a fuss, I explained the plan I had thought of.

---

After finishing our preparations, we left the bank.

Aunt Sujeong followed us out and called to me.

“Mr. Ihyun.”

“Yes.”

“Um… Will it be okay?”

The worried aunt.

It was a natural worry.

“There are always variables….”

They possess various skills.

Some skills are sufficiently threatening even if they aren’t attack skills.

In other words, a human group, unlike a monster group of the same kind, has diversity.

“Besides, safely rescuing Ms. Yuna’s father as well….”

Aunt Sujeong trailed off.

Still, I knew what she wanted to say.

“Mom. Don’t worry and go inside. What if someone sees you?”

“Haa….”

She was worried about Jang Hoseop.

Because her son was entering the heart of enemy territory with me.

She had already endured a lot by not opposing it earlier.

She was probably asking me carefully like this separately to avoid going against my wishes.

“In case of an emergency, I will simply flee.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Having received the answer she wanted, Aunt Sujeong returned to the bank.

Lee Yuna and Aunt Sujeong would remain at the bank.

The monsters in this vicinity had all been cleared out by the department store group.

“It seems Ms. Yuna thought her father would be a bit more comfortable if she just disappeared….”

“That wasn’t her true feeling.”

“You think so?”

I crossed the street while talking with Jang Hoseop.

“Don’t be nervous. Let’s just stick to the plan.”

“Yep!”

We entered the department store through an entrance.

“Huh? Police?”

“We are police. We’ve come to see Representative Kim.”

A man was sitting on a folding chair he had set up.

“You know Mr. Kim Hongsik, right?”

“Kim Hongsik… Ah, Team Leader Kim?”

“Yes. He’s at the station right now.”

Jang Hoseop stepped forward and spoke to the man.

Dressed in his cleaned police uniform, his police cap pulled down low, shamelessly.

He bickered with the man as if he were truly a police officer.

“Even so….”

“Don’t you know that if you keep obstructing us like this, it’s obstruction of justice?”

This department store has a wide hall in the center.

It’s an oval-shaped hall, surrounded by stores.

You could say it looks like a stack of squashed donuts.

Up to the 8th floor.

“The Representative is on the 2nd floor.”

“Yes. Could you possibly guide us?”

“Uh… I can’t leave this spot.”

“It’s because time is of the essence. Please.”

At Jang Hoseop’s repeated requests, the man guarding the entrance finally agreed to guide them.

‘We’ve passed the entrance, at least….’

Information obtained through interrogation.

And Lee Yuna’s story.

Putting it all together, Representative Kim is not a pushover.

He is a decisive person.

But I don’t think everyone will be like that.

There are those who actively sided with Representative Kim, and those who just go with the flow.

That’s why I came up with this plan.

‘Codename… Police.’

It was the codename Jang Hoseop had decided on.

People haven’t yet broken free from their pre-cataclysm mindset, and we are going to use this to our advantage.

‘It would obviously be dangerous to face everyone….’

There’s no need for that.

Our primary goal is to confront Representative Kim.

“But then… what is this about?”

“We cannot disclose that.”

The gatekeeper man asked as they ascended the escalator.

Of course, they had to walk up on their own two feet.

“Ah… Yes.”

He didn’t seem to know that his people were dead yet.

It was worth the hurry.

“Where are the other people?”

On the way to a corner of the building after reaching the 2nd floor.

Jang Hoseop asked in a nonchalant tone.

“Civilians are on the 5th floor and above. Why do you ask….”

It was the same as what I heard from Lee Yuna.

Do they think another earthquake might happen?

Representative Kim and his close associates stay on the lower floors.

Perhaps, they were also aiming for the effect of confining people.

“Mr. Kim Hongsik asked for someone as a witness.”

“A witness? Uh… Is there some problem with Team Leader Kim?”

Jang Hoseop glanced at me.

I nodded.

“It’s not a big problem. Just a minor dispute.”

“Pardon? No, but why a witness for something like that….”

“So, I have one more favor to ask.”

“No, I have to go back to guarding the entrance….”

Jang Hoseop’s tone was becoming more and more natural.

“Could you please find a man named Lee Jangsu?”

“Old man Jangsu? He’s not a civilian, he’s on the 3rd floor….”

“Yes. I know you’re busy, but please.”

Jang Hoseop said, maintaining a blank expression.

But I could feel his emotions.

‘He’s enjoying this….’

Jang Hoseop seemed to be the type who was strong in real situations.

---

A corner on the 2nd floor.

We arrived in front of the room where Representative Kim was presumed to be.

It looked like a space that was originally used as an office.

A thick steel door blocked our way.

“What? Why did you come up?”

“Ah, that’s… because these police officers asked me to.”

The obstacle wasn’t just the steel door.

The man guarding the door sighed.

“Hello. We’re from Yeongdeungpo Police Station.”

Jang Hoseop naturally stepped forward.

I pulled the flustered gatekeeper man back.

I asked him again to find Mr. Lee Jangsu.

“Yes….”

The man replied that he understood and quickly disappeared.

It was fortunate that he was so compliant.

“Are you saying you came all the way from there?”

“Yes. Inside….”

“Does that make sense? If the police were doing their jobs properly….”

The man guarding the department store entrance looked young.

In contrast, this man guarding the representative’s office looked to be in his 30s.

He wasn’t easily swayed by Jang Hoseop.

He stood firmly blocking the door and held out his palm towards us.

It looked like he might even use a skill if necessary.

‘This person is Chief Choi.’

He was one of the attack skill Awakeners Lee Yuna had mentioned.

“Do you happen to smoke?”

Tapping Jang Hoseop’s shoulder, I stepped forward.

I slowly took out cigarettes from my pocket.

It was one of the packs of cigarettes Jang Hoseop had been saving whenever he saw them.

“No, why suddenly cigarettes….”

The man stood still even as I approached him.

I could feel anticipation from him.

He was wavering at the temptation of cigarettes.

“I have a lighter too.”

“I don’t know what business you have here, but….”

I removed the plastic wrapping from the cigarettes in front of him.

Then the man stopped what he was saying and held out his hand to me.

It wasn’t to use a skill.

“Uh… Wait a moment. Don’t just open it….”

I smiled and handed him the cigarettes.

Tap tap tap tap

Then the man tapped the cigarettes on his palm.

That was the last thing the man did while he was alive.

Stab stab

Pretending to take out a lighter, I took out a knife and stabbed the man.

I covered his mouth and nose with my hand.

“Wow… Hyungnim. I couldn’t even see your hands.”

I laid the man on the floor.

He stopped breathing quickly.

“It wasn’t that extreme.”

“If I exaggerate a little. That’s how fast it was~ You see.”

I heard he used to smoke very frequently before the cataclysm.

But after the cataclysm began, Representative Kim had apparently controlled his access to cigarettes.

‘There are two of them….’

After easily dealing with the man.

I checked the auras I could feel from inside the office.

Two auras were close together in a position visible as soon as the door opened.

“Two.”

“Yep.”

Jang Hoseop stood in front of the door.

After he finished preparing and nodded, Jang Hoseop knocked on the door.

Knock knock

No response.

Knock knock knock

Jang Hoseop knocked again.

This time, a little louder.

Still, no response.

“Uh… Are they sleeping?”

It didn’t seem likely they were taking a nap.

The auras I felt were faintly wavering.

I signaled him to just open it.

Creak

Jang Hoseop turned the doorknob.

The door opened with a small noise.