Chapter 153 – Time to Clean Up #4

T-That person…!

Song Won-jin asked in a quivering voice.

“Y-You…w-who are you?”

“Eh? You don’t know? Really?”

“I-I-I don’t know!”

Oh, look at this. Tae-hyuk smiled.

Song Won-jin’s words seemed to be true. He was the chairman of Taesung Chemicals. He took the lives of Kim Tae-sung’s family and drove him to become the Bomber, yet he didn’t even know Kim Tae-sung’s face.

“How funny. Really funny.”

Tae-hyuk brought his mouth to Song Won-jin’s ear and whispered,

“I am called the Bomber.”

“……!”

Now Song Won-jin realized who was in front of him.

“Now do you understand why I came here?”

“…T-This is ridiculous. You can’t do anything but make bombs… H-How did you…?”

Chairman Song Won-jin seemed terribly confused. However, he started looking at one corner of the room.

“Hrmm. There must be bodyguards in the next room. You are probably expecting them to come and save you when you give a signal.”

“K-Kuock! …You must have come here for a suicide bombing. You must have known that I was here. But this is the end. Surely you didn’t think I would come here without any preparations!”

Song Won-jin pressed the pager hidden in his pillow. Then the connecting door opened and the security guards waiting in the next room rushed out. Originally, they would’ve stayed in the same room as Song Won-jin to protect him.

However, he sent them away for a while and this happened, and now the situation was reversed. Even if the Bomber had a bomb, it would be over if he was taken out before pressing the button.

“C-Chairman-nim! Are you okay?”

Song Won-jin exclaimed,

“K-Kill this bastard!”

The elite bodyguards moved quickly. They were holding something that looked like a briefcase. In fact, the guards pressed the knob and pulled out a special gun. Song Won-jin smiled with satisfaction as gunmen suddenly appeared. The Bomber would be riddled with holes due to the bodyguards…

Tae-hyuk shrugged and used Bullet Time. He aimed his pistol and killed four bodyguards in an instant.

“H-Heok! W-What is this?”

“Isn’t the situation flowing differently from what you thought?”

“……”

For the first time, fear entered Song Won-jin’s eyes.

“Now it seems like we are ready to talk seriously.”

“…What are you? The Bomber is clearly an ordinary human… Aaaaack! P-P-Phantom!”

Song Won-jin realized who was in front of him. He heard that Phantom had broken the Bomber out of prison. Therefore, he strengthened his security by several times. They always checked if there were bombs installed, everywhere he went.

Song Won-jin thought that Phantom broke out the Bomber because he needed the bombs, yet Phantom had come barging in here.

Tae-hyuk said with a smile,

“That reminds me, didn’t I get paid when the case involving Taesung was revealed? I was just trying to make money. Don’t blame me too much.”

“T-That is meaningless…”

“I’m sorry. I’m a little busy. Let’s get straight to the point. Ah, don’t try to run away.”

Tae-hyuk shot at Song Won-jin’s foot as he tried to run away.

“Kwaaaack!”

“You can keep trying to run away. But next time, I’ll shoot something between your legs, so be careful.”

“……”

Song Won-jin nodded desperately with a white face.

“Then let’s start the fun question time. First of all, who invented the bomb?”

“……”

“Well, that isn’t very important.”

“K-Kuhok, ugh… I-I understand! I-I will answer. I was the head of the research institute. I never gave the command…”

“That isn’t my question.”

Song Won-jin gulped at the unexpected words.

“Don’t you have a friendship with the Yakuza who came across the water?”

“……!”

Song Won-jin was shocked.

After seeing his expression, Tae-hyuk realized that this was the last piece of the puzzle. But first, he needed to get a clear answer from Song Won-jin’s mouth.

“What are you doing with them?”

“T-That…”

Tatang!

“K-Kuaaack!” Wahh…! Kuaaaaak!”

Tae-hyuk looked at the blood splattering Song Won-jin’s crotch.

“I told you. If you don’t answer properly, then I will shoot. There is only one chance. The next time…”

“…K-Kuock. Kk…”

Song Won-jin looked at his groin bitterly. He had lost the most important part for a man.

“There is no more time to do that.”

Tae-hyuk pointed a gun at Song Won-jin’s head. In the end, Song Won-jin couldn’t endure it anymore and shouted.

“…R-Right! The Yakuza are behind the Taesung Group!”

“It would’ve been good if you had said that sooner. What are you doing with the Yakuza?”

“T-That… I can never say it…”

“Perhaps this person threatened to kill you if you leaked such secrets?”

Tae-hyuk took off the skull mask for a brief moment and Mister Park’s face was revealed.

“M-M-Mister Park!”

Mister Park’s name emerged from the mouth of the shocked Song Won-jin.

“Tsk. I would have told you to watch your mouth.”

“…Phantom already knows everything.”

“Actually, it is only half-way.”

“This, shit…”

In the end, Song Won-jin was forced to tell everything that he knew. He might die at the hands of the Yakuza, but he needed to escape from the threat in front of him first.

“…Yes. We are doing research for the Yakuza.”

“What research?”

“The Yakuza call it Psychotropic Incense. It is a special fragrance with a brainwashing effect.”

“Do you know the raw material that it is made out of?”

“I know that it isn’t a normal material.”

“Shouldn’t you know since you are doing research on it?”

“……”

Song Won-jin didn’t say anything for a while. He knew what the Taesung Group was doing to make money. The moment he expressed this, his life would be like a fire in front of the wind. Even if he escaped from Phantom, he would die at the hands of the Yakuza.

“Then what is the relationship between the Psychotropic Incense and the virus killing event?”

Song Won-jin opened his mouth with a troubled expression. He would’ve never said this if a gun wasn’t pointed at his head.

“It is very hard to make the Psychotropic Incense. However, it is possible to increase the Psychotropic Incense if there is the T-1 virus, and it can even be spread through the air.”

“Whoa. Wait a minute. Then you can enslave the whole country using the Psychotropic Incense?”

“T-That’s correct. Of course, it is still in the research stage, but once it is completed, we can sell Taesung Group products more efficiently than anyone else. When that happens, we will be the largest group in the country… No, the world’s greatest…”

Tae-hyuk smiled.

This was why they were studying something like the Psychotropic Incense. It seemed like he didn’t know how dangerous the Psychotropic Incense was.

‘When I was in the Death Circus, it only clouded people’s judgment. But it is evolving gradually through research.’

Then Mister Park would borrow the name of his twin brother to enter the political world. Something would go wrong and he would be killed. A young guard in his 20s got involved without knowing anything. That young man would unfairly go to prison for 10 years, only to receive the death penalty.

The whole thing hadn’t begun yet, but Tae-hyuk knew what would happen.

“Really? Then who ordered that the Bomber’s family be used as an experiment?”

Tae-hyuk wanted to know who had turned him into a scapegoat. The person giving both orders was likely to be the same.

“That, I really don’t know! The Yakuza are in charge of the research institute…”

Tae-hyuk smirked. Yes, that was the case.

“But weren’t you the one who ordered it to be kept as secret as possible? Then aren’t you responsible?”

“……”

“Well, you answered my questions, so I’ll finish it here.”

“T-This is the end? R-Really?”

“Ah. I have one last thing to ask. Where did the institute move to?”

“T-That…”

Song Won-jin eyes’s shook but there was suddenly a gunshot from somewhere.

Tatang!

“K-Keok…”

“H-How dare you betray Oyabun! Hooray Yamaguchi!”

One of the bodyguards was still alive. His trembling hands held the briefcase as blood poured from his mouth. The deep smell of death filled the room.

Tae-hyuk licked his lips.

“Sheesh. I didn’t get to hear the most important thing. Well, it doesn’t really matter.”

Without looking back, he shot the bodyguard with the pistol.

“I’m sorry but I already know the location of the institute.”

Hawk Eyes allowed him to see the status window of the opponent, and briefly displayed the person’s current psychological state. As soon as Tae-hyuk mentioned the institute, Song Won-jin had recalled the location. Naturally, the location of the research institute was marked on the Demon Revealing Mirror.

“Ku, kukukuk… Goodbye Song Won-jin. Don’t worry, your friends will follow you soon.”

Tae-hyuk said with a laugh.

As he rose from his seat, he saw something in the mirror covering one entire wall of the hotel room.

“……?”

The place where the eyeballs were supposed to be was a hollow space. The mouth was ripped from ear to ear and something red dripped whenever he laughed.

Something looked at Tae-hyuk and laughed,

Tae-hyuk realized who it was.

“What, it is me.”

He shook his head a few times and the reflection in the mirror became Tae-hyuk’s original image. He had to be tired.

Maybe he used the crime skills too much, but he couldn’t rest just yet.

@

Tae-hyuk looked at the research institute in front of him. It was considerably large since it was attached to a university. On the street, researchers wearing white gloves were talking together happily.

‘The atmosphere isn’t bad. Now, this place…’

As Tae-hyuk got out of the taxi, somebody followed him. They took his hand and said,

“Tae-hyuk, this is the Wolsang Institute. Starting from next year, Noona has decided to attend the university attached to it.”

“Well, it isn’t bad.”

Tae-hyuk smiled at Ha-ran.

However, he suddenly lost his appetite.

‘Noona suddenly said that she wants to go to this university.’

Originally, he was planning to go to another research institute. Suddenly, Ha-ran said that the director of the Wolsang Institute wanted to talk to him. He had planned to refuse and strike the Taesung Research Institute of Physics and Chemistry, but something strange lingered in his mind.

It was like a premonition. In order to find out what it was, he decided to meet the director of the Wolsang Institute.

‘Fortunately, I removed all witnesses, so the Taesung research institute won’t be removed again any time soon.’

Ha-ran pulled Tae-hyuk’s hand and cried out,

“Now, let’s go!”

Her footsteps were very light at the thought of this being her university life from next year. Tae-hyuk laughed as he touched something in his pocket. He had forgotten for a while, but that smile…

Eh? What was it?