Chapter 12: Guilty (12)

“I almost died from being shot just now! Do you understand?”

“Oh, thank you.”

Actually, there was no need to be afraid of a pistol.

Even if you pointed it at my mouth and my Adam’s apple, I wouldn’t have blinked.

However, I didn’t think she would protect me so devotedly.

Basically, being a mercenary is not a job that a person who values human life can do.

“Ouch… This, I feel like I did it for nothing…”

“It must have hurt.”

Even with the overwhelming muscle acceleration and cognitive acceleration, it doesn’t guarantee the body’s durability.

Even if a human were to run at full speed and break the glass window, it would hurt as if the body were to break.

Furthermore, if she had used her physical acceleration ability, she would have run at a speed far exceeding that of a human.

It would be no different from tying a human in front of a car running at full speed and smashing the glass window.

However, her body seemed to be in good shape, contrary to what I had thought.

If the physical acceleration device doesn’t guarantee the body’s durability, it can be supplemented through other enhancements.

The arm.

Her arms, which were crossed on both sides when she broke through the glass window, were made of a fairly strong material.

“Umm..”

It was dangerous.

It was hard to gauge how much time she had.

It wasn’t a proper implant, but a rough implant that had been performed without a license.

There were many cases where there were performance issues, but it was a vicious thing that was better.

Even a healthy implant that a healthy person had performed on would eat away at a human’s life, big or small.

What’s more, it was for combat.

While implants for daily life could compromise to some extent between the shortened lifespan and the convenience of daily life, there was no limit to combat implants.

It was a world where a mercenary who had his entire body modified with three months of life left would be killed by a mercenary who had his body modified with stronger and more poisonous implants with a week of life left.

“I almost died…. You too, if someone points a gun at you, at least pretend to dodge!”

But she looked fine.

A person can be ruined by an implant.

You only see what’s in front of you, or you only see what’s far away.

Usually, the former is overwhelmingly more prevalent.

People who can’t stand the pleasure of killing, sexual desire, or drug cravings that they can feel right away and let them out.

However, some who come to their senses look far ahead.

Their short remaining lifespan, their insignificant emotions and everyday sensations.

They pursue something worth sacrificing all of these things and run towards it.

Usually, they just fade away like a swarm of bugs burning in the light.

“Thank goodness…”

However, Doris in front of me looked completely fine.

She is the type who ‘sees far ahead”.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t stand seeing someone get shot and die in passing and used her ability.

This conversation is also quite ordinary.

It doesn’t feel like talking to a severe implant addict who lacks some part of her emotions.

She gets angry where she should be angry, but doesn’t forget why she acted.

A smile formed on her lips.

It was a stroke of luck.

In addition to simply satisfying my selfish desires, she would have the skills to compete for the top spot among the mercenaries in Stella City.

However, they were either too powerful or already under the concentrated control and pressure of the company.

If I could persuade her to do as I wished, I would have gained power beyond the common sense of those who had been controlling me.

There were times when a dagger that I didn’t even know when I had brought was more powerful than a rifle locked in a safe.

“Thank goodness! Uh… Do you have a lot of money? If I had to break the glass window, Luna and Lavina would probably try to kill me, right?”

“Oh, that won’t work. Don’t worry.”

I was lucky.

I thought that even if it was those thugs, Doris might realize that I was Hansanwoo if we continued the conversation.

I guess she thought that someone like that wouldn’t come to a shabby street with just one companion.

Thank goodness.

“Sir, please remove the body here. I’ll pay for the trouble.”

“…They’re dead.”

He looked down at the dead with a gloomy face.

I followed that gaze without realizing it, and I met the eyes of the corpse whose head had been blown off below the neck.

“_”

He deserved to die.

He pointed a gun at me and even shot me.

Judging from the angle of the gun, it didn’t seem like he was trying to kill me, but it was still true that he wanted to see me suffer with a bullet lodged somewhere in my body.

It might make more sense to worry about the innocent and good people who are dying somewhere, rather than being immersed in useless sentimentality.

However, the person was dead.

Not Han San-woo’s, but my own eyes, no.

Even Han San-woo’s eyes, it wasn’t often that I saw a dead person in person.

I probably had never made eye contact with a corpse for this long.

It was unnatural.

The secretary’s pistol destroyed their heads with a firepower that was hard to believe came from that small barrel.

In the 21st century, you wouldn’t get stronger by throwing more money at a gun, but this world is different.

When it came to guarding members of the Hansan family, the amount of money they spent on the pistols they held was equivalent to the sales of a small business.

The money spent to kill people served its purpose well.

I thought that guns and bullets could never be more expensive than people, but in Stella City, that was the reality.

While others had bullets in their brains, this man had one in his mouth.

Considering the shock, the pain probably didn’t last long.

The bullet had blown everything below his neck.

I should have been a little more excited.

However, I didn’t think this man would let me go just because I ran away or lowered my head.

He had noticed that I was a rich man.

He wouldn’t have been satisfied with just giving me a few bills.

He would have searched my wallet or tried to find the card chip embedded somewhere on my body.

That was unacceptable.

Giving a few pennies to a thug was one thing, but if my identity was revealed, the plan would be too distorted.

That wasn’t the end of it.

If the news spread that a member of the Hansan Group had been extorted by street thugs, Hansan’s private soldiers would have killed them in the most painful and miserable way possible.

Compared to that, this was a more humane death.

They were simply killed by a tool intended for killing, and they died in the blink of an eye.

However, the cafe owner who had just been threatened by them was lowering his head with a gloomy expression.

There was no way there was anyone in this city without sin.

An innocent and good person.

If there were such a person, they would have left this city by any means possible.

Whether it was a car, an airplane, or a lead bullet.

People who could not survive in this city.

The people who remained were those whose family members or friends had committed crimes, if not themselves.

People who maintained their purity by getting their hands dirty on the hands of others.

Most of them accepted crime as a daily routine in order to survive.

The corporations were the ones who forced people into crimes to make money.

I didn’t want to regret killing them.

I didn’t even think about blaming my secretary.

I had done my job faithfully.

I had no choice either.

No matter how many times I thought about it, there was no way to resolve this issue amicably without revealing my identity.

However, it would be okay to just reflect for a moment like this.

Before I become more tainted by this city.

The broken windows sparkled in the sunlight.

Some of them were stuck in the bodies of the dead, reflecting the light.

I took in the sight.

“Are you crazy?”

Luna slapped Doris’s back.

Doris’s back, which had been strengthened, didn’t feel any special, but Doris tried to show that it hurt.

“Ouch… Well, it worked out well, didn’t it? That young master may seem a bit foolish, but he spends a lot, right? If you knew how much I’ve earned, wouldn’t you think differently?”

“Money isn’t the point. Don’t you really know that getting involved with corporate people won’t bring you any good?”

“That’s right. That bastard had a mean look in his eyes at Doris!”

“Really? Am I a pretty face?”

Doris shrugged.

“Well, I thought it was pretty cool, too. The moment I heard the sound of a gunshot, he broke the glass window and showed up…”

“Actually, he didn’t seem to have much on his mind.”

“A rich young master with a sense of purpose wouldn’t come to a place like this.”

Luna and Ravina usually bickered, but this time, their wills were aligned.

“The implants you illegally got were mostly leaked from the company. If that guy had tried to repay the favor by catching you, you should have run away without looking back.”

“So what? You were a neat person, weren’t you? Thank you, I owe you something, this is my small favor. Bye. Really… If Stella City had been filled with people like this, we could have made it a better city.”

Doris had been prone to rushing forward without thinking.

However, the experience left her with many scars.

Most of the people who were saved would run away in fear of her rather than express their gratitude.

Maybe they were stingy with the money they had to pay as a reward.

“They said they would even testify for the police.”

“Is that a body accelerator a joke? You only meet big shots, so you probably don’t know its value, but if it was something you were wearing, it wouldn’t be strange for the company to search for it with all their might.”

“Come to think of it, something felt different. It was a little strange.”

Rather than listening to Luna, Doris recalled the moment she ran toward him.

He was quite handsome.

His face was covered by a mask, but there was no sign of implants.

The moment the trigger of the gun aimed at his side was pulled, she immediately activated her power and ran towards him.

“Somehow, it felt like eyes were following me.”

It must have been an illusion.

I couldn’t see him because of his sunglasses anyway, right?”

“If you say it like that, it’s true…”

“Be careful. That secretary-looking person also used a body accelerator.”

“Really?”

“It seemed a little late. It seemed to react to the sound of a gunshot…. He shot and killed five people at once. It wasn’t even the firepower of a pistol, so he might really be a high-ranking official in the company.”

“That’s a bit sad.”

It felt like she had heard that the person she had romantically saved was actually a war criminal.

It might have been natural.

He was obviously a rich man, and there were practically no people in this city who made money honestly.

“Now that we’ve made money, let’s go back to work.”

“You used it once today… Don’t use it when you’re working. Okay?”

“Oh, I’ll take care of it. Am I a kid?”

“Yes, I am a kid.”

Ravina interrupted, stopping Doris.

Doris kept her mouth shut, but she couldn’t bring herself to argue.

“We’ve arrived. This is the factory where the incident occurred.”

The security was a bit chaotic, but it didn’t look like there was any room to sneak in.

“So, what do we do?”

“We’ll hack in this vehicle. It’s easy. Ravina, you guard me, and you find the access point.”

Finding the CCTV footage from the day of the incident and the computer access records that handled the machine wasn’t that difficult for these skilled mercenaries.

“Even if you’re going to make a mistake, avoid shooting. They said that if someone dies, it’s a breach of contract. Have you prepared the suppression grenades?”

“Of course.”

It was slowly becoming night.

The mercenaries were milling around, waiting for the moment when the guards would change.

“Right now. The CCTV is stopped, so just be careful not to get caught yourself.”

“Okay. I’ll go!”

Doris climbed over the factory wall.

Soon, the streets became quiet as if nothing had happened.