Chapter 65

● SYSTEM

ΔT+22:11

By the time twenty-two minutes had slipped away, Geum Seoul remained bound to the wooden chair, his arms pinned ruthlessly behind the slatted backrest. Unlike his earlier posture where his forehead had rested against his chest, his head was now lapt backward in limp exhaustion, the faint, shallow rise of his chest the only proof that life still lingered within him.

Leaving Geum Seoul secured in the depths of the underground passage, Gwak Chun-young had emerged onto the surface. At his back waited at least ten heavily armed enforcers, while additional sentries guarded every drainage egress in dense clusters.

His call with Director Noh Pil-gyu had concluded moments ago. Though Noh had issued a recall order, Gye Do-hyeop and a handful of obstinate subordinates had disregarded it, leaving Noh to bitterly grumble that he would bury them quietly under disciplinary proceedings later. ‘Snatch that bastard Gye Do-hyeop and take that ledger back by any means necessary!’ The sheer desperation clinging to Noh’s parting shout had been almost pitiful.

“Any fresh intelligence on Gye Do-hyeop beyond that radio chatter?” Gwak inquired.

“No, boss,” Manager Lee Ho-hoon answered smoothly. “A scout team swept the stadium perimeter, but they pulled out empty-handed. They’re still scrambling blindly. Reaching this far will take them hours.”

Gwak Chun-young gave a curt nod at Manager Lee’s assessment. Choosing this subterranean vault had always been meant to sow confusion. Street cameras could feed the NSSA dozens of decoy routes, while slipping into forgotten drainage aqueducts instead of an above-ground ruin cut away the most obvious avenues of satellite tracking. Gwak had estimated that they would need at least two hours to pinpoint him. More than enough time, he had thought, to recover the ledger from its hiding place and force a settlement.

“…Still, why hasn’t that bastard made contact?” Gwak asked with a frown.

That was the nagging question. The NSSA bastards would have every scrap of a man’s personal data on file, yet Gye Do-hyeop hadn’t placed a single call. Rumored to possess a venomous temper, Gwak had expected him to dial first and erupt in foul vitriol, yet the radio chatter had sounded utterly unruffled. The lack of frantic bluster felt anticlimactic.

Gwak tapped his signet rings against his thigh. “Is he really not in a hurry?”

Was the boy nothing more than a disposable pawn? Given those stunning features and the alpha pheromones coating him, Gwak had assumed Geum Seoul would make excellent collateral. Then again, not everyone possessed an eye for exquisite things. Gye Do-hyeop might have treated that pretty creature as nothing more than a convenient bedwarmer. The intelligence team was tracing vehicles, yet their movements showed none of the frantic desperation Gwak had expected.

“If he plays it that cool, he’s going to make me greedy,” Gwak purred.

If Gye Do-hyeop showed zero inclination to barter, Gwak fully intended to keep Geum Seoul for himself. Even if he couldn’t reclaim the ledger immediately, holding the boy would buy him time until Do-hyeop secured an A-grade jewel, allowing him to plot other contingencies. Gwak cast his gaze toward the underground portal.

‘Let’s take it from the beginning. You know who Gye Do-hyeop is, don’t you?’

‘Yes…’

‘Who is he?’

‘A customer… from Iljang Trading. That’s… all I was told. A gangster… thug who works there.’

Unable to open one eye, his blood-smeared face had trembled uncontrollably as he stammered out the words.

‘It’s true. He said he came… to buy jewels. He really did buy them at the auction. Rin’s jewels, and…’

Throughout his years traversing domestic and foreign black markets, Gwak Chun-young had encountered countless jewel Omegas. With sufficient capital, a man could plumb the deepest trenches of illicit indulgence. Over his business career, he had purchased, sampled, and resold every known grade of gem, naturally mastering the craft of handling every variety of jewel-bearing human.

A fresh twenty-year-old like Geum Seoul was an open book at a single glance: timid, fragile, and utterly naive. Had the boy crossed paths with Lee Hee-joong in private, Hee-joong would have stripped the flesh from his bones before swallowing him whole.

Among the gutter-rats who crawled through the slums, truly untainted innocence was nonexistent. While toyed-with fakes had their charm early on, Gwak now preferred cunning pets who knew how to wag their tails and flatter their patrons. That was why he had favored Lee Hee-joong, who understood proper boundaries.

In that regard, Geum Seoul was uniquely fascinating. While appearing tediously naive on the surface, observing him closely revealed an unexpected resilience. One wondered if this was what genuine purity looked like, or if the sheer perfection of that face merely deceived the senses.

What remained undeniable was that every inch of Geum Seoul piqued his appetite. The sheer terror radiating from the boy when the door was breached, down to his clammy, sweat-slicked fingers when the ring was forced onto his joint, had thoroughly whetted Gwak’s palate.

‘Where is the ledger?’

‘I don’t know. I swear I don’t.’

Those trembling amber eyes hadn’t wavered from that desperate plea through the final interrogation. The boy possessed none of the grit needed to endure torture, submitting meekly under pressure. Did that truly mean he knew nothing? The legendary Gwak Chun-young found himself tilting his head over a mere twenty-year-old waif.

“Should we bring out the truth serums to speed this up, boss?” Manager Lee suggested.

Gwak waved a dismissive hand. “He’s far too precious to ruin with chemicals.”

A different approach was required. If this concluded with him keeping the boy, treating his injuries came first. Among all the fragile toys Gwak had touched, Geum Seoul appeared the most delicate. Bandaging his wounds and coaxing him with gentle affection would yield better results. He was still young, after all—

Boom—!

As Gwak contemplated his prize, a distant detonation rattled the earth beneath their boots. Stooping instinctively, Gwak straightened to find several armed guards rushing forward to form a defensive cordon.

“What was that?! Here already? You swore it would take two hours!” Gwak barked.

Manager Lee barked into his transceiver, “Checking now, sir! Perimeter team, report! What happened?!”

“Manager, we have— Currently no sign of—” a voice crackled in static.

The radio transmission dissolved into garbled static without providing a coherent update. Gwak pivoted back toward the entrance.

“Allow us to breach first and secure the interior, boss,” Manager Lee urged. “Please wait here.”

“No. I need to see what this bastard is playing at with my own eyes,” Gwak countered.

He wanted to see the face behind Gye Do-hyeop’s terrifying reputation, and more than that, he craved to witness the expression on Do-hyeop’s face when he laid eyes on Geum Seoul. Taking a tactical shotgun handed over by his guard, Gwak Chun-young led his security detail down the concrete stairway into the subterranean depths. A rusted placard reading Restricted Sector: No Unauthorized Entry lay trampled in the mud.

Hiss. Ssshhh.

Ordinarily, the underground thoroughfare was a dry, forsaken sewer containing nothing beyond stagnant puddles. Yet an overhead drainage main had ruptured, spewing pressurized water across the masonry like an erratic sprinkler system—undoubtedly the aftershock of the recent explosion.

With a sharp hand signal from Manager Lee, the squad split into two files, three enforcers hugging the opposing wall as they advanced. Muddy runoff was already lapping at their ankles, though to a man who had clawed his way up from street gangs to CEO, foul water was hardly a deterrent.

“Locate the detonation point,” Gwak commanded quietly. “We’ve held this portal continuously, so the breach came from another vector.”

Acknowledging the hand gesture, two vanguard scouts led the march. Though their steps were deliberate, sloshing through ankle-deep water made absolute silence an impossibility.

“Manager, another conduit is ruptured up ahead,” a scout called out softly.

Manager Lee cautioned, “Keep your distance and inspect it from afar.”

With weapons raised, the vanguard took three cautious steps forward.

Ka-boom—!

The sensor wasn’t positioned near the blast point at all. In a blinding flash of concussive force, the two forward scouts were shredded into airborne shrapnel, their severed remains detonating in a shower of gore. In an instant, Gwak flattened his back against the concrete wall.

Gwak roared, “Take cover!”

Weapon actions cycled with metallic clatter as men racked their slides. Though blinding spray impaired visibility, the concussive echo ringing through the vaulted cavern rapidly faded.

“What the fuck! He breached already?!” Gwak shouted.

Manager Lee observed, “Doesn’t look like he set it by foot.”

Following Lee’s pointed finger, Gwak tilted his head toward the ceiling directly above the blast origin. A steel drainage grate sat mounted overhead, pale blue daylight filtering down through the rusted slats.

Manager Lee stepped forward. “I’ll verify the perimeter.”

Carefully checking the floorboards, Manager Lee stepped beneath the overhead grate, surveying the ceiling before gesturing back.

“Zero signs of entry from above. He must have shoved the charge through the street grating,” Lee reported.

Gwak snarled, “Which means the bastard is already here. Hey, give me the heavier piece.”

At Gwak’s command, an enforcer swapped the rifle for a heavy combat shotgun.

“Insane son of a bitch,” Gwak cursed through clenched teeth. “What’s he doing? Trying to murder his own hostage before we can even negotiate? Or has he already extracted Geum Seoul?”

“Unlikely, sir. We stacked heavy security around the inner chamber,” Manager Lee reassured him.

As Gwak spat a bitter curse, Manager Lee signaled for half the squad to sprint down the secondary tunnel, maneuvering to flank the approach from the rear.

Now six men remained. With three guards flanking Gwak’s right, two on his left, and a rearguard watching their six, the detachment pushed straight ahead toward the holding area where Geum Seoul was bound. The muddy water beneath their boots had turned black with fresh blood, where severed torsos would rot within days. Click, clack. Tension hung thick as fingers rested on hair-triggers.

The engagement had erupted far sooner than calculated. How the fuck did this bastard arrive so quickly? His jaw hardening, Gwak Chun-young lengthened his strides.

Splosh, splash.

Though muddy water dragged at their ankles, rounding another sharp corner brought blessed silence as the rushing runoff faded. Ahead, an empty expanse of dry concrete stretched into view, free of tripwires or proximity sensors. Sweeping his damp, curly hair back from his brow, Gwak gestured his men forward.

Manager Lee reported, “Boss. Visual on Geum Seoul.”

“Yeah. He hasn’t been moved,” Gwak replied with relief.

Just as Lee noted, Geum Seoul was visible at the far end of the corridor, his head tilted back in the same limp posture. The security detail stationed around him remained in position, rifles raised as they nervously scanned the gloom following the earlier explosions.

Gwak demanded, “Still haven’t determined which direction Gye Do-hyeop approached from?”

“Doesn’t match where our perimeter guards were stationed,” Manager Lee answered. “The primary detonation came from the sealed western portal, so we dispatched scouts there.”

Comms remained deadened by localized static. After several failed reconnection attempts, Manager Lee yanked the earpiece cord from his collar.

“Comms are patchy, but the network holds. He’s likely probing exterior egresses without having committed inside yet,” Lee reported.

Geum Seoul sat at the very terminus of the tunnel system. A solid masonry wall backed him, flanked by three cavernous thoroughfares radiating outward. What a tedious entrance. Gwak scowled, surveying each pitch-black tunnel in turn.

Drip, drop.

Beyond the distant trickle of water, dead silence enveloped the chamber. Every enforcer held their weapon leveled, fingers hovering over triggers as they monitored divergent sectors. Tension compressed the air like lead.

Flicker.

An enforcer stood directly behind Geum Seoul with a gun barrel trained on the boy’s head and glanced down at the battered face. Twenty years old. Rumored to be an omega, though his scent was scarcely more than mist. His swollen eyelids rested shut, then parted halfway. The guard caught a glimpse of lucid amber through the narrow slit and felt an odd chill. The boy was not unconscious at all. His gaze remained fixed, intensely and deliberately, on the ceiling rafters. Following that unwavering line of sight, the guard slowly began to tilt his chin upward.

Phfft—

Boom!

In a fraction of a second, an impenetrable wall of smoke choked the enclosure. Almost simultaneously, a whisper-thin monofilament wire snared the guard’s throat, hoisting his massive frame straight into the shadows above. Guh… ack! The strangled gasp of crushed cartilage was completely swallowed by an explosive blast tearing through the western tunnel.