MIM 41

“I’m sorry, please spare my life. I swear I won’t breathe a word about the experiments to anyone. Please!”

Shin-woo looked down at the man tied to the driver’s seat with an emotionless expression. Jo Jin-hyun. A former professional baseball player who once played in the Major Leagues, he had invested in the research and even volunteered himself for experiments in his desire to become an Alpha.

From the moment Jin-hyun first approached Ma Jin-seong, Shin-woo knew it would end like this. Although Jin-hyun was a talented athlete and wealthy investor in his field, he was careless in his speech and actions, and above all, had a short temper. The only reason Ma Jin-seong accepted Jin-hyun’s investment, despite not taking just anyone’s money, was because he was extremely curious about whether an adult Beta with exceptional physical abilities could mutate into an Alpha with even better abilities when taking the drug, and if so, whether the side effects would be less severe.

However, Jin-hyun couldn’t even last half a year before giving up. The older one was, the more side effects there were, and recovery was slower, so his body couldn’t handle the fatigue. If he had made the decision to quickly get off the experiment table and end it there, it would have been fine. But he was caught trying to sell information about the research to a reporter for a large sum of money. It turned out the chairman of the media company that reporter worked for was a golfing buddy of Ma Jin-seong’s.

“If you had done that from the beginning, I wouldn’t have had to deal with this hassle.”

Shin-woo replied indifferently and checked his watch. The bomb installed in the car was about to explode. The bomb placed under the driver’s seat would spew out massive flames, burning Jin-hyun’s body and all evidence to ashes. He strode briskly to a safe distance. His role ended here.

3, 2, 1… BOOM! The ground shook and the air trembled with the explosion, momentarily deafening him. As he watched the red flames shoot up, Shin-woo pulled out the fingers he had hastily stuffed in his ears. Hazy smoke colored the night sky, and the smell of burning flesh filled his nostrils. The flames cast a reddish glow on Shin-woo’s face.

The fire department would arrive soon. Shin-woo turned around and started running at full speed. Soon, he disappeared into the shadows.

* * *

Every single person who had entered Ma mansion from Mangwol District had fulfilled their purpose as a test subject. Shin-woo learned this fact when Ma Jin-seong ordered him to scout new test subjects. Only then did Shin-woo realize what the annex he was staying in had originally been used for.

Surprisingly, Ma Jin-seong didn’t force the proposal on people like he had with Shin-woo. He let go of those who refused and only brought in those who agreed, paying them hefty sums. There were even some who came looking to become test subjects after hearing rumors. No matter how they came in, none of them lasted more than three months. Every time Shin-woo fell asleep, he heard screams transmitted through the walls.

On the day he disposed of Jin-hyun, another person occupying the end room of the annex died. Because the smell of those slowly dying was even more terrible than the smell of blood, Shin-woo could always tell immediately when someone died. Given that he was already sick of hearing the scream every night, this was almost a relief.

After briefly reporting to Ma Jin-seong and walking down the hallway, Shin-woo suddenly felt a tightness in his chest and stopped in front of the stairs.

In just a couple of months, he had come to understand pretty well what was going on in the mansion and what had happened to the people from Mangwol District. Was there any reason for him to continue working here? Between the 500 million he had extorted before and the money he received from Ma Jin-seong, he had already earned more than enough. There was no reason to endure here, smelling rotting corpses.

Should I leave?

“Get out of my way!”

There was a commotion on the floor below. Looking down, Shin-woo saw Jae-seung’s mother rushing up the stairs in her nightgown. Shaking off the servants trying to stop her, she barely made it up the stairs and spotted Shin-woo, frowning. As if he wasn’t even worth talking to, she just shot him a contemptuous glance before flinging open the door to Ma Jin-seong’s study.

“Are you crazy? Will you take responsibility if Jae-seung dies? This is going too far!”

The words leaking through the not-quite-closed door made Shin-woo’s nerves stand on edge. As he turned slightly to look, the door slammed shut with a bang. Shin-woo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Even trying to calm his breathing, the uneasy feeling wouldn’t go away.

The reason he hadn’t left this mansion earlier wasn’t because he feared Ma Jin-seong. It wasn’t because he valued his life, nor because he needed the money.

Shin-woo thought of the blocks piled up next to his bed. The blocks he received one by one each time he spoke to Jae-seung had accumulated enough to build a palm-sized wall. He hadn’t deliberately collected them thinking they’d be worth money; it just happened that way. Most of their conversations occurred when he ran into Jae-seung loitering near the annex.

After thinking about it, Shin-woo realized it had been a little over three days since he last saw Jae-seung. Could he have reached death’s door like those guys in the annex? Shin-woo went downstairs and casually asked the servants he encountered about Jae-seung’s recent whereabouts. No one gave a proper answer – they either avoided eye contact and ran away, or kept their mouths shut and pretended not to hear. Finally, he went outside to find the gardener, having seen him often chatting with Jae-seung.

“Well… I heard this from someone who works in the kitchen. I thought I should tell you in case there’s something you can do.”

The gardener hesitated for a long time, fidgeting before finally speaking, as if there was indeed a problem with Jae-seung’s situation.

“They say that every Friday evening, a small amount of poison is mixed into his meal. Supposedly to help him develop immunity and become a stronger Alpha.”

“…Poison?”

The revelation was truly shocking. While not knowing the details of the transformation experiments, they certainly don’t inject poison into all test subjects. Let alone feeding poison to one’s own son. The gardener looked around, then led the stunned-looking Shin-woo behind a large tree.

“They’ve been doing it for a while now, and the young master has been enduring it incredibly well, beyond belief.”

“You mean he’s unaffected?”

“He does suffer, but ultimately survives. I heard Mr. Ma was extremely excited when he found out about this. Apparently, it started when everyone in the household got food poisoning from eating raw oysters one day, but the young master was fine. That’s when the chairman began to take notice and started giving such orders.”

From running errands for Ma Jin-seong, one could tell how obsessed he was with dominant genes. Being an Alpha was a given, but among Alphas, he persistently sought examples of those who were healthier, longer-lived, and more physically capable. That’s why he was more fixated on his second son, who was born much healthier but was a Beta, rather than his firstborn Alpha son. He wants to turn Ma Jae-seung into a superhuman.

The gardener’s expression darkened as their conversation went on.

“This time, the reaction was quite severe, so it seems the madam sent him to the villa.”

“Why there specifically? It’s not even a hospital.”

“Usually, he cries and suffers in pain for days on end, and she can’t bear to hear it. If he’s out of sight, it’s less distressing for her right away.”

Those crazy bastards deserve each other. As Shin-woo listened, his irritation grew. When he chuckled without trying to hide it, the gardener finally seemed to catch on.

“It’s not my place to say, but that’s how it is.”

“Who did you say told you this? The person working in the kitchen?”

“Oh my, it’s not their fault! They just confided in me quietly out of pity for the young master, and I-“

“I’m not going to harm them, so please tell me.”

If they work in the kitchen, they would know what kind of poison and how often it’s being fed. Shin-woo reassured the gardener, who kept asking if he really wasn’t going to cause trouble. Only after getting a promise did the gardener reveal the name.

“It’s a child named Woo-hee.”

Lest he forget, Shin-woo wrote the child’s name in his phone’s notepad. He returned to the annex, washed up and lay down, but far from falling asleep, his eyes grew more and more wide awake. Even rolling a few blocks he had placed by the window in his hand didn’t help him close his eyes. The scent of dying men seemed particularly strong today.

Shin-woo suddenly got up and sat in front of his laptop. He searched for properties owned by Lee Joo-yeon and found the address of a villa located in an isolated area. Of the three villas, two were near the seaside where many tourists visit, but one was deep in the mountains. It was obvious which villa Jae-seung had been locked up in without having to look any further.

It was past two in the morning. Shin-woo stared out the dark window and finally grabbed his car keys.