SOG Ch 169

“Hana-ssi, I’ll put you down on the floor for a moment.”

Park Yu-ram immediately recognized the redhead as the terrorist they had encountered in the emergency room. The stretcher felt unbearably heavy, but despite the urgency of the situation, she carefully lowered the stretcher. This was to free both of Gu Ji-young’s hands, who had the gun. Amidst the need to escape the fire, with Gyeong Hye-in seemingly in a daze and uncooperative, Gu Ji-young, who was armed but had an injured arm, had hurriedly taken over carrying the stretcher.

However, Park Yu-ram and Gu Ji-young couldn’t defend themselves.

Gu Ji-young’s hand, fumbling at her waist with her uninjured hand, was trembling noticeably. There was no gun at her waist. Moreover, Gyeong Hye-in had vanished without a trace.

“Ah, it’s that Esper old lady from earlier?”

The red-haired man said, pointing his gun at the two people blocking the pregnant woman. He recognized Gu Ji-young, who had disappeared from the emergency room before the shooting began.

“Should I be happy about this or not? How did you disappear so perfectly? Weren’t you a psychic Esper? Did you have a hidden ability? Well… whatever ability you had, it’s all useless now.”

The red-haired man swallowed a chuckle, saying he had originally thought it would be a shame to kill them. He aimed his rifle at the prey that had rolled into his hands, including the pregnant woman.

“Sit down. Line up against this wall. Hands above your heads. …That’s it.”

“Why… why are you doing this?”

Park Yu-ram, kneeling with her hands raised beside her ears, finally burst out in a trembling voice.

“Why are you killing people for no reason?”

“Hmm… because each person is a ‘history,’ I guess?”

After a moment of silence, the red-haired man exhaled a languid sigh while still aiming the rifle.

“How much effort did parents put into raising that one person? How did they live, what kind of family did they have? It’s fun to think about ruining that history with my own hands. How desperate would the remaining family members be to learn that their carefully raised child, their loving wife, and their mother died by my hand? It will be an irreversible wound in their lives.”

“…”

“I’m becoming that kind of god. I’m the one inflicting those wounds. On countless people’s lives.”

The red-haired man’s eyes glimmered with anticipation. In that sense, the pregnant woman would be an even more special prey. It was then that he shuddered with even more solidified satisfaction.

“Right.”

The woman with glasses and long hair, who had remained silent, suddenly spat at him, her hands still raised.

“You, don’t change. Live exactly as you are now.”

“…What?”

What was this woman saying? The spoils that should be trembling at his cruelty were meeting his gaze directly, not knowing her place. Despite her trembling voice, she spoke without hesitation.

“You’re talking nonsense. Irreversible wounds? The people left behind will overcome it on their own and live their lives well!”

Most people do! They’ll obviously live better lives than trash like you who can’t live without giving meaning to killing people. Park Yu-ram spat out relentlessly.

“You don’t understand why their lives would be better, do you?”

“…”

“Don’t ever understand it. Don’t ever crawl out of the hell you’ve created. Rot in there!”

This b1tch… The red-haired man’s face flushed red and blue. It was as if he had been covered in curses or filth. As the glasses woman said, he couldn’t understand, but he knew it felt disgustingly bad. Before he could think, his military boot lashed out, kicking the insolent woman hard.

“Say that again.”

“Agh…!”

“Go ahead and talk back again! Spouting off like you’re so smart. Someone like you would have died someday even if it wasn’t by my hand!”

There are always those who don’t know their place and can’t stop running their mouths, wherever they go. Those who ask for a beating, those who hasten their short lifespans. Agh! A scream burst from under the sole of his shoe. Her glasses flew off, and as the red-haired man raised his foot again…

Bang-!

Suddenly, a deafening gunshot rang out. He thought he had quickly raised his gun in response, but the red-haired man suddenly realized his limbs wouldn’t move. Bang! He only felt another impact hitting his off-balance body.

Huh, what’s this? What just happened?

An image formed in his bloodshot eyes. Eventually, he realized that what the unfamiliar, partly blackened woman was holding was his own lost pistol.

People usually recognize their own belongings well. He recognized it immediately, especially since the tattoo sticker he had attached to the handle was visible over the woman’s hand.

Why is my lost pistol there… The red-haired man’s last thought was nothing special. Just like his meaningless end. His log-like body fell backward with a thud.

“…”

Meanwhile, Gyeong Hye-in slowly lowered the gun as she looked down at the corpse with a blown-apart head. Her chest heaved with labored breaths, her face flushed bright red. Her nose and mouth were soaked with moisture, and her entire body was in a wrecked state after enduring the suffocating flames, surviving only by soaking her gown in water to use as a makeshift mask.

“Sorry. I was late trying not to make a mistake.”

Gyeong Hye-in approached the group, holstering the pistol and wiping her still-wet hands on her clothes. She had been anxious, worried about slipping when pulling the trigger, and didn’t know how much trouble she’d gone through.

“I told you I had shooting training, right?”

Gyeong Hye-in said, forcibly pulling up her stiff lips. Her plan had been to lure the terrorist into letting his guard down and kill him in one shot.

“I thought you ran away… I thought you ran away alone…”

Park Yu-ram, her lips trembling, burst into tears.

“Oh, come on. So you ran your mouth like that with no backup at all?”

Gyeong Hye-in patted Park Yu-ram, who was crying with her hair disheveled and made her habitual sarcastic remark. She thought with a stiff face. In fact, she had seriously agonized over whether to run away alone. Because she thought her survival chances would be higher if she ran.

“You shouldn’t rashly provoke someone with a gun.”

Gyeong Hye-in was scolding Park Yu-ram, saying she could have died horribly instead of easily, when Park Yu-ram, who had been sobbing, hugged her without hesitation.

“…I said you shouldn’t provoke someone with a gun.”

Gyeong Hye-in sighed. She now put away the gun with no bullets and hugged Park Yu-ram back. Suddenly, Gyeong Hye-in’s neck twitched briefly. It was her first time directly killing someone. Her hands kept trembling.

As Gyeong Hye-in clenched her fists, she saw Jung Hana covered in tears and Gu Ji-young sitting in front of her over Park Yu-ram’s shoulder. Seeing Gu Ji-young nodding at her, she was reminded of her son.

‘Become a better person. Someone worth turning back to.”

She recalled Seon Jae-chan’s advice when he was giving her relationship counseling. She was trying to become a good person to win back the heart of her boyfriend who had become disappointed in her.

I did a good thing. I did a good thing.

I didn’t run away, and I’m trying to become a good person like this.

So whether she was the daughter of the president or not, she hoped her boyfriend would look at her again. Wondering if he would be worried about her, if he would even know about this situation, or if he would think he was right to have broken up with her earlier, Gyeong Hye-in stood up, brushing herself off.

“Everyone, open your mouths.”

She turned on her phone light and quickly checked the noses and mouths of her companions. The main concern in a fire scene was smoke inhalation. Although they had stayed in the burning autopsy room for a very short time, she still needed to check for soot in their nostrils and throats.

Seeing the three people following her instructions so obediently, Gyeong Hye-in felt strange. She, who had been viewed with suspicion by her companions, was now able to look into their throats as easily as a trusted dentist.

Just as she finished checking Jung Hana…

“I’m so sorry. I’m really sorry…”

She sobbed, addressing the group. Park Yu-ram, who had been crying along with her, responded.

“It’s okay.”

“No, I’m really sorry… Actually, I’m still sorry, but… there’s something I’m even more sorry about…”

Between sobs, Jung Hana took a short breath and clutched her stomach. The group quickly realized what was happening. The baby was coming.

In fact, Jung Hana had been in labor for a while. She hadn’t been able to sleep and had only pretended to be asleep. That was why Gu Ji-young, who had experience giving birth, had been hovering around, wiping away the cold sweat that had been seeping out uncontrollably.

Gyeong Hye-in handed the rifle taken from the corpse to Gu Ji-young. Park Yu-ram, who had gone to the other side, lifted the stretcher vigorously.

They hurriedly moved through the corridor where the flames were gradually spreading and headed to the lobby. They pulled and closed the heavy fire door attached to the wall. They naturally didn’t care about the corpse with the blown-up head inside. They had other things to focus on.

As they were about to leave Research Building 3, the four people who had been on high alert due to a sudden presence approaching the entrance sighed in relief.

“What in the world is going on here?!”

It was Chae Seong-hwan. If anything, it was fortunate to have reinforcements.

However, only Gu Ji-young quickly and keenly realized that Chae Seong-hwan was alone. Her second son wasn’t there. From the moment she heard that voice in the broadcast, so eerily similar to her eldest son’s, her growing fear had started to take shape.

Boom!

It was like a bolt from the blue.

A sudden deafening roar tore through the air. The ground shook as black smoke and flames shot up. Those who had closed their eyes tightly due to the explosion cast blank gazes outside the entrance. The Research Building 2 visible in the distance had been completely decimated and blown away.

*

The sound of the explosion reached even the nuclear power plant.

-Target elimination complete.

The terrorists, clutching their ears from the eardrum-shattering roar, grimaced, but soon after receiving the radio transmission, they raised their heads with snickering laughs. A few mocking glances were directed at Seon Jae-chan.

Jae-chan, unable to compose himself due to an ominous feeling, slightly opened his mouth.