Chapter 25

First Breakthrough

“What? You're saying this is our case? What exactly are you looking at?”

“Come over here and look at this.”

Gu Dae-cheol pointed with the tip of his shoe at the white body outlines and bloodstains drawn to preserve the scene.

Park Chang-su tilted his head.

“Team Leader, we're looking at the same thing, right? No matter how I look at it, all I see are outlines of the victims. What, have you started seeing ghosts lately or something?”

—SMACK!!

“Look properly. What kind of detective has eyes like that? Look at the arms and legs of the body outlines here and here. What do you think?”

“What do I think? They're certainly bent pretty freely······.”

“Exactly, freely. Like they're some kind of mollusks.”

Gu Dae-cheol crouched down and pointed with his finger at the bent joints in the body outlines.

“Sure, weapons were involved, so bones could've broken and limbs could've ended up twisted here and there. But even taking that into account, don't those joints look strangely bent however they pleased?”

“······.”

“You remember Im Seong-bin's autopsy results, right? And the compression marks left on CEO Kang Myeong-cheol's neck. That bastard we're chasing. Isn't his signature crushing people's joints like they're made of clay? On top of that, there's that high school kid who supposedly crawled into the police substation on his own.”

“Han Tae-seong?”

“Yeah, Han Tae-seong. They said his spine was completely shattered too. It's the same bastard we've been chasing. Even if it isn't, there's definitely some kind of connection.”

Gu Dae-cheol rose from his seat and continued.

“But what's really strange is why he left the witnesses alive.”

“Probably because he's a psycho. That bastard even filmed Im Seong-bin and uploaded the video. It's a desire to show off. A desire to show off.”

“Then what about CEO Kang Myeong-cheol?”

“W-well, that was······.”

“And you know we haven't caught a single trace of that bastard's movements on CCTV, right? Most importantly, only Im Seong-bin appeared in the video. Every bit of information about that bastard himself was completely blocked out. Someone who's that paranoid about hiding himself left witnesses alive? Isn't that strange?”

“Ugh······. My head's starting to hurt. But couldn't we just catch the bastard first and ask him about mysteries like that afterward?”

“Yeah. That's true. Then let's start by getting a composite sketch of the culprit.”

At Gu Dae-cheol's words, Park Chang-su opened his mouth.

“Actually, I already asked the local station guys handling the scene about the culprit beforehand.”

“Yeah? What'd they say?”

“Well, it's a little······. First, everyone agrees he was wearing a black hoodie and a cheap plastic mask that looked like something from Daiso. But either those kids all lost their minds together or their descriptions of his build are all over the place. One says he was in the high 180-centimeter range, another says he was over two meters tall and built like some kind of wrestler. There's even one guy who says he had a small build in the 160-centimeter range.”

“This is driving me fucking crazy. What, did terror make all of them lose their minds?”

“Ah, and there's one other detail most of them agree on. Apparently that bastard had nothing on his hands but a pair of work gloves.”

“Work gloves over bare hands? Bullshit.”

Gu Dae-cheol snorted with an incredulous expression.

“Twisting joints, sure, that can happen. Pulling them out of place too, that's not exactly difficult. But crushing a person's joints with bare hands? Hey, Park Chang-su. Could you do it?”

“Not me. But Team Leader, you can bend a five-hundred-won coin with your bare hands. Can't even you do it?”

Gu Dae-cheol sharply furrowed his brow.

“You idiot, are coins and human bones the same thing? Dislocating something with technique isn't difficult. But crushing bone by squeezing it? Even Ham Sang-myeong, the biggest monster of a human being I've ever seen, couldn't do that barehanded.”

“If even a judo gold medalist couldn't do it······.”

“Right. He's carrying around some kind of specially modified compact tool, like hydraulic cutters used by firefighters or a rebar compression tool. Their memories probably got mixed up and distorted between bones breaking during the fight and him crushing them afterward with a tool. Just like how they all remember his height and build differently. And there were high school kids who watched the fight aside from the guys who got smashed up, right?”

“Yes.”

“Take proper statements from them. Ah, come to think of it, there were CCTV cameras here too. What about the footage?”

“Well······ the forensic team guys were over there somewhere? Ah, there they are.”

Several forensic team members were gathered where Park Chang-su pointed.

“My, you've all been working hard. We'd like to check the CCTV footage. Did anything useful get recorded?”

At Gu Dae-cheol's question, one of the forensic team members who had been crouching stood up.

In his hand was something so mangled that its original shape was nearly impossible to identify.

“What is that?”

“A hard drive.”

Gu Dae-cheol and Park Chang-su stared at the wreckage that the man claimed was a hard drive.

It looked beyond saving to anyone.

“Uh, excuse me. Is there any chance the data inside······.”

“It's destroyed.”

“Nowadays, even if the casing gets smashed up like that, can't the National Forensic Service recover the data if you send it over? I saw that happen in a drama.”

“In dramas, detectives get stabbed and hit by buses and still run around catching criminals.”

“Yes, exactly.”

A brief silence.

Just as expressions saying, What the hell is this bastard talking about? began appearing on the forensic team's faces, Gu Dae-cheol spoke.

“Sorry. More importantly, is that really impossible to recover? I mean, if you're only hit lightly by a knife or bus, you can still run and catch the culprit.”

“You can't exactly be hit lightly by······. No, that's not what's important right now. We won't know for certain until everything is sent to the National Forensic Service, but from what we can tell, the chances are nearly zero. The culprit is extremely thorough and clearly an expert.”

“An expert?”

“He took out all the hard drives, crushed and warped them with something like a press, then put them in that microwave over there and cooked them. And he was thorough too. If you look over there, the cameras by the entrance counter and that wall are independent cameras that use SD cards rather than being connected to the system originally installed here. He pulled those out too, smashed them, and cooked them along with everything else.”

“He cooked them after smashing them?”

“Yes. And the timing was precise. If he'd kept the microwave running, this place probably would've caught fire. He ran it only long enough to thoroughly burn the devices. Physical destruction plus internal heating. The magnetic components, circuits, everything are completely ruined. I don't know how much the guys at the National Forensic Service have improved lately, but not even their grandfather could recover this. To use your analogy, Team Leader, it wasn't lightly getting hit by a bus. It was more like getting hit by a bus going a hundred kilometers per hour.”

Gu Dae-cheol examined the wreckage in the forensic team member's hands once more.

“He left the witnesses alive, but fried all the CCTV footage······.”

“Team Leader.”

At that moment, Detective Yoon Ji-a, the only woman on the team, approached.

Her steps were quick and decisive.

“Oh, Detective Yoon. What about the local station guys? Did you manage to coax them properly?”

“Yes. They were prickly, but that's nothing new with local station guys.”

“Yeah, good work. So what did they say?”

“First, as soon as the incident happened, they collected every dashcam recording from the cars parked in the alley.”

“The local station guys did? Since when were they that diligent?”

“They probably moved quickly because even they could tell this wasn't an ordinary case just by looking at the scene. So? Did they get anything?”

A trace of anticipation.

Yoon Ji-a shook her head.

“No. They're still going through everything, but so far they haven't found anything. They especially focused on footage from around the time of the incident, but apparently there's no record at all of anyone suspicious entering or leaving the building.”

Park Chang-su clicked his tongue.

“Those local bastards. Then obviously he was lying in wait beforehand and slipped out much later. Or maybe he went out through a window or something. Don't tell me those idiots only checked dashcams on cars parked directly facing the door?”

“No, Senior. That's not what they did. And they're apparently going through all the nearby CCTV footage too, but nobody wearing the same clothes as the suspect appears anywhere.”

“Of course not. He was wearing something distinctive and would've been covered in blood. Why would he walk around dressed like that? He changed somewhere, then burned or buried the evidence before coming out.”

Park Chang-su scratched his head.

He had escaped this area, filled with dozens or perhaps hundreds of eyes lining the streets, without leaving a single trace?

It was impossible to understand by ordinary common sense.

Gu Dae-cheol felt just as frustrated.

He pulled a cigarette from his pocket, put it between his lips, and walked out of the billiard hall.

“Team Leader, me too.”

Park Chang-su followed behind him.

—Sizzle.

The lighter flame burned long, and the smoke he exhaled scattered into the chilly air.

Gu Dae-cheol's eyes absentmindedly followed the smoke.

‘Data destruction. Expert. Specialized equipment. The physical ability to subdue gangsters.’

Cigarette smoke dispersed between the buildings characteristic of Ansan's old downtown.

Power lines crossing the sky tangled across his vision like a ball of knotted thread.

And at that moment, a sudden thought flashed through Gu Dae-cheol's mind.

“Hey, Chang-su. And Detective Yoon.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

“Do you think you two could jump from there to there?”

The sky where the cigarette smoke dispersed.

Gu Dae-cheol's finger connected one rooftop to another.

“What!?”

_____________

A slightly late evening.

“I'm home.”

A house where no answer came back anymore.

Even so, just as I had long ago when this home was bustling with people, I greeted the empty house.

The first thing I did when I came home was wash my hands and feet, take off and organize my outside clothes, and change into pajamas.

In the past, whenever I changed and came out of my room, there was always warm food waiting on the table.

Dinner prepared by Mom, who somehow always managed to make it home in time from work.

But now, all that sat in its place was a single hamburger I'd bought on the way home.

The irony of missing the home-cooked meals I'd once found so tiresome and being sick of the hamburgers I'd once desperately wanted to eat.

I sat at the dining table with the cooling hamburger before me and stared at the text floating in front of my eyes.

[The Scales of Karma have corrected their balance.]

[The truth behind the unjust death of a courageous boy has been revealed.]

[You have acquired a First Limit Breakthrough Rune Fragment.]

[Current Holdings: 3/3]

[All fragments have been collected. The ‘First Limit Breakthrough Rune’ is complete.]

The message had persistently remained before my eyes ever since I was working at the office during the day.

[Would you like to use the Limit Breakthrough Rune?]

‘Yes.’

The moment I thought that I would use it, three choices appeared before my eyes.

[Please select the stat whose limit you wish to break.]

[1. Strength (Current 50)]

[2. Durability (Current 50)]

[3. Stamina (Current 50)]

Just as expected.

It was exactly what I'd suspected the entire time I was collecting the Limit Breakthrough Rune fragments.

There was no generous shortcut that would remove every limit all at once.

Then which ability's limit should I remove first?

I didn't need long to decide.

‘Strength.’

A fanfare appeared before my eyes.

Nothing particularly dramatic changed immediately.

[Current Status]

Strength: 50

Durability: 50 (First Limit)

Stamina: 50 (First Limit)

Karma Held: 11,042

All that happened was that the words ‘First Limit’ beside Strength disappeared.

Then another message followed.

[First Limit Breakthrough First-Time Reward]

*Roulette Ticket (Elite) - Test your luck.

A Roulette Ticket visibly more elaborate than the Rare-grade tickets I'd received before entered my inventory.

There was no reason to save either my stats or the Roulette Ticket.

‘Everything into Strength.’

[Warning: This value exceeds the biological limits of the human species. Forced rearrangement of the nervous system and muscle fibers will begin, accompanied by extreme pain.]

Extreme pain?

I hadn't even finished processing the meaning of the warning.

—CRRRUNCH!!

“Hk······!!”

I couldn't even let out a deathly groan.

An overwhelming pain, as though someone had put my entire body through a grinder, minced it into pieces, then forcibly stitched it back together.

When had I collapsed onto the floor?

The wooden kitchen floor I was clutching had been crushed like clay.

If there was anything fortunate, it was that the horrific process of disassembly and reconstruction did not last very long.

Breathing heavily, I pushed myself up from the floor.

Outwardly, there had been no major change.

But everything had changed.

I could instinctively tell.

The density of every one of my muscle fibers had transformed to resemble steel.

That I had become a vessel of utterly alien violence, far beyond the biological limits of humanity.

[Current Status]

Strength: 100 (Second Limit)

Durability: 50 (First Limit)

Stamina: 50 (First Limit)

Karma Held: 1,042

Ten thousand Karma had vanished in an instant.

The required amount had exactly doubled, but calculations like that weren't important right now.

My gaze was fixed on the newly updated words ‘Second Limit.’

A Strength of 50 had undoubtedly been superhuman.

The utmost extreme that could be reached within the specifications of humanity.

But that was all.

A physical limit that perhaps some giant worthy of being recorded in history might conceivably have reached.

If my goal had been nothing more than protecting myself or pursuing some petty revenge, that would have been sufficient.

But the enemy I had declared war against was never an individual.

The legal net that protected perpetrators in the name of safeguarding blind Justice.

The vast judicial system built upon the bloody tears of victims.

If I was to crush that arrogant state system and reign as the perfect judge, something as trivial as ‘the greatest strength among humans’ was nowhere near enough.

—Squeeze.

I clenched my fist.

Even this value of 100, which had crushed the floorboards like tofu, might still not be enough.

My Durability and Stamina were still trapped at the First Limit.

So I could not stop.

I would gladly devour this ominous power that had shed the shell of humanity until I could shatter the iron wall they had erected in the name of law.

Greater power than this.

Yes, I wanted power that surpassed the system of this society.

And the system represented by this status window of mine held more than enough potential to make that possible.

[First Limit Breakthrough First-Time Reward]

*Roulette Ticket (Elite) - Test your luck.

I quietly stared at the Elite-grade Roulette Ticket floating before me.

The roulette machine was even more grotesque and elaborate than the one for the Rare grade.

Taking a bite of my now-cold hamburger, I pulled down hard on the lever floating in the air without hesitation.

—CLUNK!!

With a loud mechanical noise, the roulette began spinning madly.

Brilliant colors of incomprehensible meaning and cheap-looking effects decorated my vision.

—THUNK!!

The symbols began stopping one by one.

A gigantic eye.

And one sharp arrow aimed directly at that eye.

[Congratulations! You have acquired the Elite Skill ‘Veil of Blindness.’]

“Veil of Blindness······.”

A grotesque emblem and a name fitting for it.

I tossed the final piece of the completely cold hamburger into my mouth.

Only the empty hamburger wrapper remained.

“Thank you for the meal.”

The hollow greeting lingered through the ruined kitchen.

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

Thank you!!