Chapter 11

Medical Student Im Seong-bin (1)

Had crushing his shoulder and knee proven that effective? Or perhaps it was because he had witnessed my fight with the gangsters firsthand.

Park Min-jae had become considerably more obedient.

“His son. It's his son.”

“His son? Are you sure?”

“I'm sure!! When the chief assigned me the job, I was curious about why he was going to such lengths, so I did some digging on my own. Just a little personal investigation. The case had attracted some attention because of the media coverage, but I still couldn't understand why he needed to pin the crime on someone so urgently.”

My hand closed around his uninjured left shoulder.

“Tell me the truth.”

Park Min-jae's face turned deathly pale, and he quickly opened his mouth.

“Leverage!! I thought I might be able to get some leverage over him. I'd already crossed the line, so I needed some insurance of my own.”

“And?”

Leverage, huh.

How fitting for a conspiracy between villains.

“The chief's son already knew that girl personally. And the chief's son had no alibi for that time. That's all!! I couldn't dig any deeper because it was too risky for me······.”

“And right around that time, the chief happened to arrange a special promotion for you?”

“······Yeah. The timing of the promotion was too convenient. Almost as if he knew I was investigating it. So I took it as his way of making a deal.”

“So in the end, all you have is circumstantial evidence?”

“Th-that's true, but!! If you give me some time, if I investigate further, I might be able to find evidence. So please!!”

I nodded.

Hope blossomed across Park Min-jae's face. He clearly thought he had just proven his usefulness to me.

“Then here's my second question. Do you remember Park Eunji?”

“Park Eunji?”

A puzzled expression appeared on his face.

Well, I had expected as much, but now I had my answer. I grabbed the collar of the man lying on the ground because of his shattered knee and hauled him upright.

“W-wait!! Let me think. No!! I think, I think I remember. Right!! Park Eunji. Isn't she the girl who worked at One-to-One behind Bucheon Station? I got confused for a moment because I'm not familiar with her real name.”

The desperate instinct to survive flashed in Park Min-jae's eyes.

One-to-One, huh······. Was that the name of a hostess bar? How wonderful of him to turn a girl who had begged him to save her life into a hostess at a nightclub.

Should I kill him?

No, that's not it.

I'm not a murderer who goes around killing people for no reason. I have clear standards. Unfortunately, this bastard hadn't crossed that threshold.

My hand moved toward his lower back.

“Don't move. If I hit the wrong spot, you'll get hurt even worse.”

“Fuck!! Why the hell is Park Eunji or whatever her name is so important? You need me to find evidence that the chief's son is the real killer, don't you?”

“No, I don't need you.”

—CRUNCH.

I precisely crushed the section of his spine where the nerves passed through.

They say you get better at anything with practice. Apparently, this was no different. After doing it repeatedly, I'd developed a knack for causing just enough damage to paralyze the lower half of someone's body. It had become fairly easy.

“AAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!”

An animalistic scream erupted from Park Min-jae's mouth.

[Incomplete Judgment has been completed. Karma will be partially calculated.]

[Weight of the sins punished (Abuse of authority, concealment of evidence, and coercive interrogation): Base value 500 Karma]

[Physical Restraint (Permanent lower-body paralysis and right shoulder injury) Ratio (25%) applied: 125 Karma]

[Resonance of Sin Bonus (x1.1) applied ➔ 138 Karma]

[Final Calculation: 138 Karma acquired]

[Current Status]

Strength: 50 (First Limit)

Durability: 50 (First Limit)

Stamina: 50 (First Limit)

Karma Held: 4,748

[Items Held]

First Limit Breakthrough Rune Fragment (1/3)

I started walking away, leaving the screaming bastard behind.

“Ah······.”

Come to think of it, there was one thing I'd forgotten.

I turned back and asked him.

“Where can I find the chief's son?”

“Fuck, my legs!! Fuck!!! You son of a bitch!!”

Could pain so overwhelming make someone forget their fear?

Perhaps it could. Although our circumstances were different, the pain I had experienced in court had been so immense that I, too, had forgotten to fear what the future held for me.

—SLAP!!!

“Park Min-jae. Listen carefully. Instead of mourning what you've lost, you should think about what you still have. I'll ask you again. Where can I find the chief's son?”

With a single slap, several of his teeth came tumbling out.

All the anger that had filled his face vanished, leaving him staring blankly.

—Squeeze.

I placed my right hand on his left shoulder, the only one of his four limbs that remained intact.

Terrible fear once again appeared on his face.

“Yeonseo University!! Im Seong-bin, a second-year medical student at Yeonseo University!!”

“That's right, Park Min-jae. Isn't this so much better? Things go so smoothly when we don't make them unnecessarily difficult.”

__________

“Grandma, this is the medicine our doctor prepared for you. Thirty minutes after meals. That means you absolutely have to take it thirty minutes after you eat. If you skip it because your stomach feels upset, I'll be very sad. Understand?”

“Oh my, dear doctor. Why do you go to so much trouble looking after an old woman who doesn't have much time left?”

“What do you mean you don't have much time left? You're still so healthy. Grandma, I'll come back next week and check whether you have any medicine packets left. So make sure you take them, all right?”

“All right, all right.”

Holding the elderly woman's wrinkled hands tightly in his own, Im Seong-bin smiled warmly.

“Senior Seong-bin, is it really fair for you to be this amazing all by yourself?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. You're about to enter your third year of the medical program, and you'll have to start your clinical rotations next year, so you must have mountains of things to prepare. But you've never missed a single weekend volunteer session, and your grades are always among the very best.”

“Studying is just about the only thing I know how to do.”

“Everyone who gets into medical school is someone whose only talent was studying, you know? I mean, I come from a poor family, so I have no choice but to work hard. But that's not the case for you, Senior. Your father's a high-ranking police officer, and your family is well-off. You could go clubbing like the other seniors over there. But instead, you're here every weekend, holding old ladies' hands. It really amazes me.”

Im Seong-bin grinned.

“I followed some friends to clubs a few times, but it didn't really suit me. I guess this is more my style.”

“Your style?”

“Yeah. How should I put it? I guess it reminds me why I wanted to become a doctor in the first place. Even if I weren't a medical student, having my car would be enough to get me into a club. But here, the things I've worked so desperately hard for are genuinely needed. Don't you think?”

“Ugh, at this rate, Senior, you're going to become some kind of surgeon.”

“Well, that wouldn't be so bad. I've studied this hard, after all. Honestly, I think becoming a real doctor is much more admirable than going to Gangnam and spending my life firing lasers just to earn a little more money.”

“Ha, seriously. Every time I look at you, I start feeling all proud about becoming a doctor myself. Argh, this won't do. If I stay around you much longer, I might catch the madness of choosing internal medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, or pediatrics.”

“Haha, if that scares you, you'd better run away quickly. I think we've done enough for today anyway.”

“Oh, come on. How could I do that? We have to clean up together.”

“No, seriously. You have a major exam tomorrow, don't you? There's hardly anything left to do besides organizing the remaining supplies. I'll take care of it, so you guys go ahead and study. At this rate, forget your passion for medicine. You might end up in internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics, or pediatrics simply because your grades leave you no other choice.”

“Ugh······. That's a little······.”

“Exactly. So hurry up and go study.”

After finally sending all his classmates and juniors away, Im Seong-bin remained alone in the old village community center, humming to himself as he began sorting the medical waste for disposal.

Frankly, no amount of generosity could make this seem like a good working environment. But the unconditional respect and praise from patients who had truly been driven into a corner, looking up at him with reverence, were more than satisfying enough to make up for all the hardship. It even made him wonder whether the senior doctors currently working seventy-hour weeks at university hospitals had chosen that difficult path because they couldn't forget this very feeling.

Yes.

I will become a doctor. Not some glorified laser technician firing lasers in a busy commercial district, but a real doctor who can be the light and salt of the world.

Having finished cleaning up, Seong-bin turned off the lights in the community center and stepped outside.

The alley was already growing dark. The approximately eight-hundred-meter slope leading down to the vacant lot where he'd parked his car ran through a neighborhood so run-down that it was hard to believe such a place still existed in Seoul.

Broken streetlights that no longer illuminated certain stretches, old CCTV cameras with severed wires, strangely muddy pavement, and the cries of stray cats echoing from somewhere. The word 'Demolition,' spray-painted in red in various places, made the scenery even more hideous.

—Step, step.

He was hurrying along, carefully avoiding puddles collected between the cracked sections of cement, when suddenly—

“······Huh?”

Seong-bin stopped walking.

In a corner of the alley beyond the reach of the streetlights, someone was sitting with their back against a wall. A person of rather small build, wearing a black hoodie pulled low over their head. Judging by the clothing and outline of their body, he had the impression that the person wasn't elderly.

Should he avoid them?

A brief moment of hesitation.

But Im Seong-bin soon approached the person. It was winter. If someone had collapsed here while intoxicated, they could be in danger. At the very least, calling the police would be the decent thing to do.

“Excuse me.”

A little wary,

Seong-bin called out from a short distance away.

“Are you all right? It's cold out. It's dangerous to sleep out here like this.”

A warm, gentle voice.

But there was no response from the person sitting against the wall. He couldn't even hear the faintest sound of breathing.

'There's no smell of alcohol.'

Normally, the people who caused trouble in places like this were drunks. The absence of any smell of alcohol meant the potential danger was already reduced by half. Seong-bin's wariness toward the stranger faded considerably.

And in its place came the concern that perhaps this person was actually a patient in need of help.

Seong-bin cautiously reached out to check the person's consciousness.

“Excuse me, can you hear what I'm say······.”

Just as Seong-bin's pale hand was about to touch the stranger's shoulder—

—Grab.

The hand of the person who had remained motionless until now suddenly seized Seong-bin's wrist.

Surprise, followed by a sense of danger.

As a medical student who had studied the human body, Seong-bin could tell. This was absolutely not the kind of grip strength a person of this size should possess. Even when he instinctively tried to pull free with all his strength, it was useless. The grip held his wrist firmly in place, like the roots of a thousand-year-old tree embedded deep in solid rock.

“Let go of me. What the hell do you think you're doing?!”

His voice rose.

But there wasn't a single person watching them in the desolate alley.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

The man who had been sitting on the ground against the wall raised his head from where it had been buried between his knees.

Darkness. And a hood pulled deeply over his head. The face that emerged from within was, absurdly enough, covered by a cheap mask of the sort one might find at Daiso.

But at that moment, Seong-bin didn't find the face amusing in the slightest.

The eyes.

Look at those eyes visible through the openings in the mask.

Could any word describe them more fittingly than 'blazing'?

The large eyes that had been staring at him as though they could pierce through the darkness curved into crescents.

“Got you.”

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

Thank you!!!