55. War Against Crime (4)
Baek Jinwoo left everything to HunGyo.
Our all-purpose HunGyo. It was truly convenient.
‘I think this every time, but he’s so capable it makes no sense that he used to be E-rank.’
—Everyone, come out.
HunGyo threw open every cell door.
Originally, he didn’t speak in front of people, but Jinwoo simply allowed him to.
From Baek Jinwoo’s perspective, those people were not human.
They were the clear “enemies” who had threatened his family’s lives, and “targets for elimination”.
“Gghk!”
“Gghuuugh!”
Among the players screaming through their gags were O Ji-myeong and Park Ho-seop as well.
‘Seriously, those two...’
Baek Jinwoo shook his head. It seemed a bad connection was destined to remain a bad connection.
—Lamba.
—Yeah!
—Take off their blindfolds and gags.
—Huh? Why do I have to do that?
When HunGyo narrowed his eyes and stared at her,
—O-okay! Got it! I’ll do it! But you have to give me a 1-hour break from training tomorrow, okay?
Riiip, riiip!
Crushed by that charisma, Lamba flew around and tore off the blindfolds.
“Urgh!”
“......You sons of bitches. Just kill us instead!”
Among the freed gangsters, some snarled viciously.
“P-please spare me!”
“I’ll tell you everything you want!”
Others begged with their heads pressed to the floor.
Also,
“Flame Bird!”
There was even someone who immediately summoned his own summon. But that meant absolutely nothing.
Slash!
The B-rank Flame Bird was cut down by HunGyo’s sword the instant it was summoned.
At the same time,
—I was going to explain first, but it seems there’s no need for that. Watch carefully. From now on, anyone who summons a creature, opens their mouth, or even attempts suicide will end up like this.
Thwip!
He lightly flicked his fingers and struck that player’s pressure point.
“Guaaaargh!”
With both hands bound, the gangster writhed like an earthworm.
It must have hurt so much that his eyes bulged out like a snail’s, and water streamed from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
He even pissed himself, yellow urine spilling out.
“......!”
“......!”
The gangsters who had secretly been thinking of summoning their creatures all froze.
Because he didn’t just look like he was in pain—he was twisting like he was really about to die.
“Aaaagh! Aagh! Stop! Please stop!”
—It’s a technique of Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing. It twists the muscles and bones, so it’s quite painful. If you’re curious, I recommend trying it once.
In contrast, HunGyo’s voice was calm.
—I’ll only apply ‘Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing’ for exactly one minute for a single mistake. If it goes on for more than five minutes, you may lose your mind or end up a permanent vegetable, so do be careful.
It was truly horrifying to hear.
What kind of pain makes someone look like that?
A full minute passed amid screams that shook the prison.
Thwip!
HunGyo released the pressure point.
“Khak, khaaak, hhk-hhk...!”
The player, cheek pressed against the floor, drooled and gasped for breath.
Naturally, the gang members all became as silent as stones.
—Good.
HunGyo nodded as if satisfied.
The players felt like dying.
A summon was talking, yet they were so terrified that not a shred of curiosity about it arose.
They might die. What did that matter compared to that?
—From now on, I’ll give each of you one chance. The information you’ll speak is simple. The location of boss Jo Jihak and the gang executives. And information on the ordinary gang members. If you don’t have relevant information, or have nothing to say?
Thwip!
HunGyo struck the pressure points of two players.
They were O Ji-myeong and Park Ho-seop.
“Guaaaargh!”
“Fuck! Why ussss?!”
The two rankers writhed at the same time like bugs burning in fire.
—This is what will happen.
There wasn’t any particular reason HunGyo was torturing them.
They weren’t really gang members to begin with, so there wasn’t any useful information to squeeze out.
It was more like punishment for being offensive.
Ever since last time, he hadn’t liked the look in their eyes when they stared at his lord.
“Aaaaargh!”
As they watched the screaming men, the gang members’ eyes gradually filled with terror.
It was frightening even if you hadn’t experienced it, and even more frightening if you had.
—Now then, you first. Start talking.
HunGyo’s information extraction began.
* * *
HunGyo’s method of torture was excellent.
One hour, my ass.
In just 30 minutes, they had spilled every bit of information and were left panting.
What loyalty could criminals possibly have among themselves?
With a single use of Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing, they were ready to confess even Jo Jihak’s perverted little hobbies.
Rather, they desperately searched their memories, trying to see if there was anything else they could confess.
—Disappointing.
Disappointed by their weak will, HunGyo gave all of them another round of Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing.
Two minutes each.
In an instant, the place was filled with screams.
—My lord.
“Yeah.”
Baek Jinwoo did not look away. He took in the sight of their suffering with his own eyes.
It was a kind of process of adaptation.
The world had changed, and things like this could continue happening from now on.
‘I have to face reality.’
If he avoided it out of fear?
In this world now, that just meant being the one who suffered.
—I think we can proceed based on this information.
The information HunGyo obtained was carefully written down by Explosive Dragon at his side.
“Okay.”
Baek Jinwoo nodded.
What he had promised Park Changseok was one hour.
Now it was time to put each of them back in solitary confinement and leave.
—Lamba.
—What now?!
—What are you doing? Tie them back up.
—Hnggh!
Lamba grumbled, but what could she do?
The other summons each had their own roles. She had to do this kind of odd job, at least.
* * *
Park Dupal was a gang member.
Not an executive, just an ordinary member of the gang, and even then just a bottom-rung one.
Since the gang operated in scattered cells, the information he knew was quite limited.
‘Fuck.’
At that moment, he was trembling in anxiety, biting at his thumbnail.
Because Baek Jinwoo had declared war against crime and said everyone should turn themselves in within a day.
‘Honestly, someone like me barely even qualifies as a gang member.’
What had he actually done?
All he had done was threaten about two ordinary players and extort money from them.
He had never killed anyone, and he wasn’t the type for that.
‘Ah, screw it.’
So he made a decision. He would not turn himself in.
‘Would they really go after even the low-level grunts? They’ll just catch Jo Jihak and call it a day, then let the rest slide somehow.’
The next day.
Park Dupal came to bitterly regret the decision he had made the day before.
He opened his front door and stepped outside.
“Mr. Park Dupal?”
Someone suddenly dropped down from the sky with a thud and said,
“You haven’t turned yourself in, have you?”
“W-what?!”
Startled, Park Dupal looked at the person and was even more shocked.
“B-Baek Jinwoo?”
How had Player Baek Jinwoo flown all the way here and recognized him?
Park Dupal’s body froze stiff, his mouth hanging open.
“I don’t have time, so I’ll make this simple. Make sure you turn yourself in by tomorrow. Tomorrow it’ll be 2 minutes. For reference, it’ll increase by 1 minute every day.”
“...What?”
What was that supposed to mean?
Tomorrow would be 2 minutes?
Then today was...?
He stood there in confusion, but Baek Jinwoo was already riding off on his wyvern to somewhere else.
But whatever. It was fine.
He would find out soon enough what that meant.
From the sky, HunGyo’s finger strike came down—thwung!—and hit Park Dupal’s pressure point.
HunGyo had already used Tendon-Breaking Bone-Crushing hundreds of times by now, and his proficiency had increased.
Now he was even able to adjust it so it lasted exactly one minute before the pressure point released naturally.
“W-what are you doing ri—... G-guaaaaaaaargh!”
Park Dupal’s body convulsed at the pain, the worst he had ever experienced in his life.
Dignity and pride meant nothing. He rolled around screaming.
Even a simple fracture hurts enough to bring tears to your eyes, so how painful would it be when your bones twisted every which way and your muscles moved on their own?
The pain lasted exactly one minute.
Only then did Park Dupal understand the true meaning of Baek Jinwoo’s words.
‘He’s telling me to turn myself in on my own.’
If he didn’t turn himself in today?
Tomorrow it would be 2 minutes, the day after that 3 minutes.
‘This is insane.’
Park Dupal shook his head.
This was not okay.
Just one minute had been enough to make him want to die, and he was supposed to endure that for 2 minutes?
‘Let’s turn ourselves in.’
His charges?
‘Just tell them everything!’
This was someone who even knew that he was just a low-level gang member.
Faced with such overwhelming intelligence, he could not even imagine what would happen if he told some pointless lie.
Park Dupal hurried back into his house, washed himself up, then immediately headed to the police station.
* * *
South Korea was experiencing an enormous change in a very short time.
[Nationwide, strange phenomenon occurring!!]
[Criminals rushing to police stations one after another—are they really that afraid of Baek Jinwoo?]
[Criminal Mr. Kim captured trembling and crying, saying, “Please, I’ll turn myself in. If I don’t, I’m dead!”]
The enraged Baek Jinwoo gave up all of his scheduled activities. He was so furious that he did not even run the weekday dungeon circuit.
Through torture, he obtained information on the criminals, and with cooperation from headquarters, he even learned their addresses.
And after that?
He went there personally and crushed them.
If they were gang members with even the slightest history of involvement, he tracked them all down and punished them.
And in the case of executives?
He uncovered new rosters and updated the intelligence.
ㄴ Wow, Baek Jinwoo is seriously brutal.
ㄴ I saw Baek Jinwoo in my neighborhood. He suddenly did something to some guy and left, and the guy was in total agony. I wondered what was going on, but that guy turned out to be a gang member. He immediately went and turned himself in. Creepy...
ㄴ At this rate, is he really going to wipe out all crime?
ㄴ His drive is insane.
ㄴ Baek Jinwoo; If I were a gang member, I’d be suffocating too.
ㄴ Lesson learned here: you can mess with him, but you absolutely cannot mess with his family.
The rumors spread rapidly through online communities.
Some gang members had already suffered at his hands, while those who had not began turning themselves in one after another.
And so, one by one, the roots of crime were being torn out.
* * *
And at that same time.
“...What do we do?”
At the abandoned building they had agreed on meeting at, one figure spoke in a worried voice.
“The gang we built up is collapsing in an instant.”
“...Yeah.”
Jo Jihak frowned.
He had considered gathering the executives, but most of them had already turned themselves in.
‘What the hell is he even doing?’
How was he obtaining information and hunting them down this fast?
Jo Jihak could not understand it.
He had never felt this kind of helplessness even against the state, headquarters, or the major guilds...
What the hell was that bastard Baek Jinwoo?
“What about the executives?”
“The ones who could gather have all gathered and are waiting. We have to choose now.”
“We do.”
Fight, or run.
Jo Jihak was not a fool.
More than anyone, he knew that with their current strength, they were no match for Baek Jinwoo.
‘...Did I provoke him too hastily?’
No.
The result would have been the same anyway.
The more firmly Baek Jinwoo established himself, the more boldly headquarters would have moved.
But if there was one thing he regretted, it was this:
‘Not going personally.’
He should have gone himself and kidnapped one of Baek Jinwoo’s close associates.
If things ended up like this, he could have at least bought time through threats...
Just then, they heard a commotion below the abandoned building.
“T-this is bad! Come down and look!”
What?
Jo Jihak hurriedly stuck his head out and was horrified.
Why?
Because he saw Player Baek Jinwoo getting off a wyvern below.
Thud!
Baek Jinwoo landed on the ground and looked around.
“So you were all gathered here?”
Then he grinned.
“I’ll give you 10 seconds. Line up in front of me. Anyone who doesn’t gets sentenced to 5 minutes.”
At the same time,
Fwoooosh!
The area around the abandoned building began to be surrounded by crimson flames.
The famous flames of the Explosive Dragon Sorcerer.
Watching that sight, Jo Jihak thought to himself,
‘Fuck... are we completely screwed?’
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