Chapter 357
The two individuals went carefully forward, keeping in mind the location of the surveillance equipment provided by the clan while heading to capture Lee Jae-soon.
Since both were warriors, they could have moved faster than most words if they used martial arts, but they walked cautiously at a pace slightly slower than an ordinary person to avoid detection by the surveillance equipment. Moreover, to avoid the gaze of passersby, they activated their qi. They also inspected the surroundings to confirm whether the address of Lee Jae-soon’s house was correct.
Their cautious movements made them appear like tourists, moving slowly and leisurely scanning their surroundings. It was truly a bizarre coincidence, as they weren’t particularly trying to mimic the details of tourists but ended up looking like them nonetheless.
Finally, having stealthily approached, they were able to reach the front of Lee Jae-soon’s house.
Crisp.
Knowing they would not be caught on CCTV, they acted without hesitation. Instead of entering the front door with the password, they used their equipment to burn the circuit and break it, forcing the door open, and they similarly used high heat on the door lock in Lee Jae-soon’s room to open it.
Clunk.
“Uh?”
At the sound of clunking, Lee Jae-soon, who had been lying on the bed, jumped up in alarm, but at that point, it was too late.
Thud.
“Ugh!”
Utilizing their martial arts, they swiftly closed the distance to Lee Jae-soon and covered his mouth. Then, using pressure points, they paralyzed his body and injected him with a syringe.
The syringe contained a white liquid.
It was propofol.
If the impact during the move loosened the pressure points or if there was something strange about them, problems could arise. Awakening and causing a scene could attract suspicious gazes from those nearby, and there was always the risk of him escaping. To ensure a foolproof plan, they decided to use propofol. If they put him into deep sedation, he wouldn’t even dream of escaping.
Quickly, they incapacitated Lee Jae-soon and crammed his body, which he had been holding onto with great care, into the carrier they had brought.
Crack.
Crackle.
There was a lot of noise during the folding process, likely because Lee Jae-soon’s body wasn’t particularly flexible. However, the warriors paid no mind to it, forcibly bending his stiff body nonetheless.
It was an extremely dangerous act that could easily lead to torn muscles or damaged ligaments…
But what did it matter?
Lee Jae-soon wasn’t someone close to them, nor was he a significant person they had to be careful with. On the contrary, he was the target they had been given orders to torture.
What did it matter if he had muscle issues, ligament problems, or broken bones?
They could just consider it an early start on their “mission.”
Crammed into the carrier without mercy, Lee Jae-soon was effectively kidnapped by the two individuals.
The warriors swiftly exited the building, carrying the carrier containing Lee Jae-soon, heading towards a location they had secured beforehand that had minimal police patrols and lacked surveillance equipment.
Their destination was an old container.
It had been left unattended for so long that only a few faded letters spelling “Scrapyard” and a couple of numbers that seemed to represent a phone number remained on the walls, and the door was so rusty that it seemed questionable whether it would even open. Additionally, the area was overrun with weeds, suggesting that human presence had long since been absent, and there wasn’t a soul in sight.
Moreover, hints that the place had been a hideout for delinquent youths were evident with broken liquor bottles and cigarettes scattered about, and those youths also seemed to have stopped coming here long ago, as the bottles and cigarettes had gathered layers of dust.
An abandoned space.
Thus, it was the perfect location.
Clunk.
Screech.
The two opened the container door and stepped inside.
What greeted them was an interior lined with egg-crate-like soundproofing materials.
The shabby appearance outside was merely a disguise; the inside was clean and thoroughly maintained, with various sound-absorbent materials covering the walls. So much had been applied that the cramped space could hardly fit four or five people.
In the center of this cramped area stood a sturdy chair made of steel.
The two closed the container door, opened the carrier, and flipped it over, unceremoniously dumping Lee Jae-soon onto the floor. In the process, he rolled ungracefully on the floor, along with the shoes he had been clutching so dearly.
They pulled Lee Jae-soon up and sat him in the chair before waiting silently.
Waiting for him to wake up.
* * *
It wasn’t long before Lee Jae-soon opened his eyes.
The amount of propofol administered had been small.
However…
The moment Lee Jae-soon opened his eyes, hell commenced.
WACK!
“Ugh!”
WHACK!
“Ugh!”
As soon as he opened his eyes, the two warriors began to beat him, as if they were just waiting for that moment.
Without uttering a single word, they pummeled him with fists and feet, aiming for places where the pain would be felt deeply yet discreetly. They even targeted his vitals, using some special method that made pain surge through him as if he were being hit by a hammer, even just a light touch on those sensitive spots.
“Please, let me….”
In the midst of the horrific violence, Lee Jae-soon struggled and begged for his life.
He pleaded for them to stop.
He begged for his survival.
As he was beaten, he implored the two, asking what he had done to deserve this.
What issue could there possibly be?
Though he looked pathetically pleading, the two had not the slightest shred of sympathy for him, continuing to pummel him.
How long did they beat him?
Finally, one of them spoke to Lee Jae-soon for the first time.
“Do you know why you’re being beaten?”
Despite trying to sound intimidating, the tone was actually rather awkward.
There was a clumsiness in the way he spoke, reminiscent of a foreigner speaking Korean, and if Lee Jae-soon had been in his right mind, he would have immediately recognized, “Ah, this is a foreigner’s pronunciation.”
But after being beaten senseless, Lee Jae-soon paid no attention to his delivery.
He focused instead on the content.
“Huh? Wha…?”
The question asking if he knew why he was being beaten left Lee Jae-soon dumbfounded.
How was he supposed to know?
They just suddenly appeared, kidnapped him, and started hitting him—how could he possibly understand their reasoning?
‘Who are they…?’
There was a high probability it stemmed from a personal grudge.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a deliberate act of beating him up.
But the problem was…
Lee Jae-soon had committed numerous wrongs.
From celebrities to politicians.
During a brief period, he had garnered countless grievances.
Of course, he didn’t think it was wrong.
If he didn’t want to be written about in articles, wouldn’t it have sufficed to conduct himself properly?
It was the act of doing something that invited criticism from others that was truly the problem.
If he hadn’t given them a reason, this wouldn’t have happened; it was simply lacking any sense of morality to think he wouldn’t be judged after smearing himself in dirt.
Right.
He never assumed he wouldn’t gain any grudges.
However, he was affiliated with a media outlet and in a country with good public safety.
He did not expect such an event to occur.
At most, he thought it would end with someone suing him or receiving a threatening letter.
Never did he imagine being kidnapped and beaten like this…
He had been far too naive.
“Don’t know?”
“Then you deserve more beating.”
Unable to respond to their questions, Lee Jae-soon was met with wicked smiles as they resumed their assault. With weak bursts of energy, they stirred his insides, inflicting even more pain, while also using their equipment to scrape at his joints.
“Ugh! Ugh!”
A horrific sequence of pain.
Yet even in a state of potential insanity from the torment, Lee Jae-soon couldn’t manage to scream.
One of the warriors had plugged a muzzle into his mouth.
So, no matter how loudly Lee Jae-soon wanted to scream, his voice emerged only as weak whimpers, absorbed by the soundproofing and vanishing within the confines of the room.
Thus, Lee Jae-soon endured torture for quite some time.
He struggled in pain to the point that his teeth cracked, and blood poured out from his mouth.
At that moment, the warriors paused their torture and pulled out a smartphone.
They took various angles of the battered Lee Jae-soon and sent pictures to their clan.
After securing evidence that they had “taken care of” Lee Jae-soon, they removed the muzzle and allowed him to speak.
Grabbing him by the hair, they tilted his head back and asked.
“You. Share all the information you have about the divine object.”
“Cough, divine…object?”
“Yes. Heavenly. Divine object.”
With guttural tones, they threatened Lee Jae-soon.
Having gone through such excruciating pain, Lee Jae-soon immediately began divulging everything he knew.
He mentioned having come across information while investigating the broadcasting station, that he felt something was amiss while searching around the mountains he suspected had been the location of filming, and that he had discovered a pit…
He spoke weakly, spilling blood at the corners of his mouth.
‘Nothing substantial.’
Unfortunately, the details he provided fell far short of satisfying the warriors’ expectations for having kidnapped and tortured a person for information.
All he managed to yield was the title of a broadcast and some anecdotes about a staff member involved.
BAM!
One of the warriors, seemingly frustrated that Lee Jae-soon was less useful than expected, kicked him in the stomach. While it wasn’t a full-powered kick that could rupture his insides, the sheer impact was too much for Lee Jae-soon, who had received no special training.
“Ugh!”
Lee Jae-soon tumbled on the floor, unable to even scream properly in response to the agonizing blow.
Despite appearing so pitiful, the warriors shot disapproving glares at him.
Frustrated by the lack of yield in results compared to their efforts, one of them began to think of creative ways to continue the torture.
‘Hmm? What should I do?’
As he pondered, something caught his eye.
It was the shoes.
The tattered shoes that Lee Jae-soon had been holding onto so dearly during his abduction.
“Are these Jordan shoes?”
Recalling how dear the tattered shoes were to him, the warrior’s face twisted into a sadistic smile as he lifted them up.
“Wait, please….”
Did Lee Jae-soon sense the sadistic pleasure emanating from the warrior’s smile?
He was wide-eyed, momentarily forgetting his pain. His pupils darted around as if there were an earthquake, and his trembling hands reached out in disbelief.
“Plea…se. Don’t, don’t do anything to the shoes….”
He desperately moved his tongue, which wasn’t working properly, begging.
He pleaded for them not to touch the shoes.
Just leave the shoes alone!
He begged and begged.
Yet the warrior simply regarded him as if he were nothing more than an insect, callously dismissing his cries for mercy, treating his plea as unworthy of notice.
RIIIIP!
“Ah.”
Time seemed to freeze.
With the sound of cloth tearing, the shabby shoes were turned to rags, shredded to the point of being unrecognizable as they lay strewn about the floor.
Lee Jae-soon stared vacantly at the torn remnants, dragging his battered body toward the pieces to gather them, desperately trying to fit the scraps back together.
But could such tattered shoes ever be salvaged?
“If you report this to the police, you’ll meet me again, heh heh.”
BAM!
The warrior, satisfied seeing Lee Jae-soon sunk in despair, proceeded to kick him one last time, sending him flying beyond the container before exiting with the other warrior.
The two slowly moved away from the container, which had been filled with agonized screams, now enveloped in a deathly silence.
“Ugh.”
Horribly beaten, Lee Jae-soon, as if breaking that silence, raised his pained head slowly.
He then began dragging his body forward once more.
To check on the remains of his shredded shoes.
“Speak…to me….”
He addressed the shoe pieces.
Hoping, like before, for conversation.
Praying that they would speak.
But the torn components said nothing, offering no sound in response, merely reflecting his state as trash with not even a flinch to his call.
“Ah.”
The shoes were ruined.
What he’d created, born of fear, was now in shambles.
“My…shoes.”
How many times had he trembled in fear and remained vigilant in this remote place with not a single streetlight around?
“Those shoes….”
How tense had he been when the fairy appeared before him?
“They’re ruined….”
He had suppressed that pain, all for the sake of a bright future.
Amidst an unknown fear of the calamity that could follow a misstep in his ritual, he had summoned his courage, fueled by hope for the future.
The dream of standing tall as a journalist.
The hope of becoming a journalist known worldwide.
Yet…
Yet here he was now.
That hope had been trampled underfoot.
Ripped to pieces by those strange two.
“Ah.”
The two who spoke awkwardly.
As if speaking the tongue of a foreigner…those two.
Emotion began to flood into Lee Jae-soon’s empty eyes.
Like the rising tide flooding the land, emotion began to glisten in his glare.
A burning feeling that could ignite his entire being.
An extreme emotion that could overshadow even the sharp agony coursing through him.
His throat felt dry, and an overwhelming need to jump into ice-cold water to cool off surged through him.
“Those two….”
Lee Jae-soon’s mind began to race.
Regardless of the energy left in him, thoughts of the two figures began to whirl frantically. Their distinctive features, behavioral quirks, and manner of speaking were etched into his memory as vividly as a video replay.
He engraved their appearances deep within the hippocampus of his mind.
To never forget.
Never to forget.
Blood oozing from his mouth, Lee Jae-soon mumbled.
“I’ll kill them.”
