Chapter 27

Beast Jo Mu-seong (2)

[Even now, twelve years later, my daughter still has to wear an ostomy bag.]

A few days ago, her intestines twisted, and she underwent her thirty-first emergency surgery.

Nineteen years old. She is at the age when she should be in the bloom of youth, yet even now, just hearing a man's loud voice sends my daughter into seizures. She cannot sleep properly without psychiatric medication, and she continues to live a hellish life going back and forth between the hospital ward and home.

And yet that devil. That bastard devil who pushed my daughter into this hell. That beast worse than an animal who tore my precious daughter's soul to shreds ate three free meals a day provided by the state in prison, even exercised there, and came back out into the world with an even healthier body.

All because of the absurd excuse that he had drunk so much he couldn't remember, receiving the indulgence of diminished capacity, after only twelve years.

When I turn on the TV, the news comes on.

His face is mosaicked, but I can still tell. That bastard devil is smiling. Is this truly right? The victim, my daughter who is prettier than a flower, must live the rest of her life in pain with a disability. Yet the perpetrator gets to stretch out both legs and sleep comfortably in a home provided by the state? While even receiving police protection because someone might try to harm him?

Every day at home, I find myself holding a knife without realizing it.

Then I suddenly come to my senses and put the knife down. I still have a family I am responsible for.

Mr. President. Is this truly a country? Is this horrific reality really due process under the laws of the Republic of Korea? I simply cannot believe it. Please, please put that devil back in prison. Please let me believe that justice is still alive in this country. I beg you sincerely.

________________

The rattling subway on the way home from work.

I pressed the button on my smartphone.

My expressionless face was reflected on the black screen.

This was a post I had eventually reached after watching a video by that YouTuber called Issue Detector at the office, following the name Jo Mu-seong through one article after another.

A Blue House national petition.

A petition that currently had around 600,000 signatures.

Nineteen years old.

The victim was a girl exactly around my younger sibling's age.

The perpetrator finished paying for his crime in good health and was released. And the victim is still wandering through hell.

—Grit.

My jaw clenched without me realizing it.

‘I don't remember because I was drunk.’

Was it because that murderer bastard who crushed my family into lumps of meat had also been drunk?

Or had my emotions risen at the words that he had finished paying for his crime?

Perhaps it was both.

“······.”

When I stared into empty space, familiar text appeared before my eyes.

[Current Status]

Strength: 100 (Second Limit)

Durability: 50 (First Limit)

Stamina: 50 (First Limit)

Karma Held: 1,042

The only unfamiliar thing was the phrase Second Limit written beside Strength.

The heaviest weight on the Scales of Karma is murder, and the Karma assigned to a murderer who kills one person is 500. And no crime on its own is assigned more than 500 Karma.

Jo Mu-seong had thoroughly ruined one person's life, and beyond that, destroyed an entire family's life.

Then how would the Scales of Karma judge that man's crime?

Would it reach a different conclusion from the laws of the Republic of Korea, which decided twelve years was enough simply because the victim had not died?

I let out a short, hollow laugh.

Of course not.

The conclusion was obvious.

Whether it was the scales held by blind Justice standing in the courtroom, or the Scales of Karma given to me, in the end, they were still nothing more than scales.

The Karma this system would offer would probably amount to only around 500 at best.

[······is your stop. The doors will open on the left, on the left.]

The subway announcement played.

I slowly rose from my seat.

Moreover, with the entire nation's eyes focused on him right now, judging Jo Mu-seong was an obvious risk.

The rational and wise choice would be to sit quietly at the law office sorting through documents, hunt petty criminals outside the police's attention, and safely accumulate Karma.

But I understand the heart of that father who grips a knife every night only to put it down again because of his family.

If my younger sibling had still been alive, I wouldn't have been able to pick up a gun in that courtroom either.

A nauseating world where the perpetrator breathes comfortably under state protection while the victim strangles themselves.

To quietly watch that spectacle and safely collect numbers?

If I were the kind of person who could live like that, I never would have fired a gun in court, nor would I have abandoned my appeal and entered Gimcheon.

[Skills Held]

Resonance of Sin (Unique)

Veil of Fear (Rare)

Veil of Blindness (Elite)

The newly added skill came into view.

Yes, with this.

I stepped beyond the opening screen doors.

My destination was Jo Mu-seong's home.

Siheung.

_______________

Evening, with the sun beginning to set.

Despite the freezing January weather, the air in the alley packed with multifamily homes carried an almost grotesque heat.

Several police cars blocking the alley flashed red warning lights, and a hastily erected metal fence had been set up in front of the old villa where Jo Mu-seong appeared to live.

Behind it, more than a dozen police officers wearing fluorescent vests stood with stiff expressions, blocking the villa entrance.

It was security so heavy it looked as though they were guarding an important national figure.

But outside the metal fence was an entirely different world.

The colorful small tents occupying the roadside resembled a refugee camp.

Dozens of tripods stood lined up in front of them.

Smartphones were mounted on top.

Some people were persistently aiming lights bright enough to hurt the eyes at the closed third-floor window of the villa.

“Brothers!! Can you see that over there right now? That devil bastard Jo Mu-seong is probably stretched out comfortably with both legs up, laughing while watching TV!! While we're standing out here in the freezing winter, furious!! And now these police bastards have put up barricades at the entrance because they say they're going to protect Jo Mu-seong!! Does this situation make any fucking sense?”

A streamer screamed into his microphone, blue veins bulging along his neck.

—Ta-da-da-dah!!

[JusticeServed donated 50,000 won. —IncheonBoss hyung, if that beast bastard crawls outside, please smash him in the mouth at least once.]

A loud mechanical voice rang out.

The YouTuber who had been red-faced with rage only moments ago grinned so widely the corners of his mouth nearly reached his ears.

“Oh my!! Thank you so much for the fifty-thousand-won donation, JusticeServed! Brothers, as you know, I left that life behind and never lay hands on civilians anymore, but I'll make an exception for that beast bastard. You know, right? If I land one hit, three or four teeth come flying right out. I'll definitely show you! Oh my, thank you for the five-thousand-won donation, JoMuSeongAnalRupture! Brothers, you see the notice on the side of the screen, right? Once today's throwing mission fills up to three hundred thousand won, or if we hit three thousand live viewers, I'll immediately chuck a rock through that motherfucker's window! Execute Jo Mu-seong!!! Castrate Jo Mu-seong!!! Let's go, IncheonBoss!!!”

It wasn't only the streamer called IncheonBoss.

Most of the dozens of people holding smartphones or cameras were behaving in similar ways.

And shortly afterward, once they stepped outside the camera angles and lit cigarettes, broad smiles bloomed across their faces.

“Hyung, how much did you make?”

“Hey, don't even ask. Sweet, it's so sweet my tongue's going to rot. Seriously, if I can keep this up for just one month? Next month I'll go straight out and buy a brand-new Mercedes.”

“Wow, that's what you call a big YouTuber. The scale's completely different from a small fry like me.”

“Want me to do a joint stream with you sometime?”

“What, should I rip out my life and hand it to you right now?”

“Forget it, idiot. You're overdoing it again. Later, when we're drinking, what was that girl's name? Ha-yeong? Bring her again. She was pretty good.”

“Don't worry about that at all. She's already been making a huge fuss asking when I'm going to set up another gathering with you. A huge fuss.”

The public's anger becomes attention, and in this era, attention is the best way to make money.

—Vroooom.

That was when it happened.

A delivery motorcycle roared its engine and pushed through the streamers toward the metal fence.

A large plastic bag in the delivery rider's hand clearly showed a set of jokbal and several green bottles of soju inside.

When the rider checked the address and tried to approach the police behind the fence, the streamers who witnessed the scene quickly turned on their cameras and rushed in front of him.

“Brothers!! Look at this!! Jokbal and soju!! The entire nation is furious, and we're standing guard out here like this!! Yet that devil bastard is calmly planning to enjoy some jokbal with a shot of soju. Brothers!! Can you seriously understand this right now?”

The screeching metallic voice from a small megaphone held by one streamer thundered throughout the alley.

Seeing their chance, the other streamers also began thrusting their cameras toward the delivery rider and shouting over one another.

And that tremendous noise finally broke the patience of the nearby residents, who had already reached their limit.

—Rattle!! Bang!!

The third-floor window of the villa across from Jo Mu-seong's residence, the fourth-floor window of the neighboring villa, and several other windows were violently thrown open.

“Hey, you fucking bastards!! Let us get some sleep!! Don't you have work tomorrow?!”

“Yeah!! All of you get the fuck out right now!! Our kids are already too scared to even leave the house and are trembling inside, so why the fuck did you come to someone else's neighborhood and start this shit?!”

“Residents!! Please calm down. We have gathered here to condemn that devil Jo Mu-seong.”

“That's right. And for the entire nation's right to know!! For that reason, even if we have to endure some hardship here······.”

The streamers offered excuses while crying out about justice.

One enraged resident finally lost patience with those excuses and chose action instead of words.

—SPLAT!!

A raw egg struck someone in the head.

As though that were a signal, all sorts of food waste began pouring down outside.

“Whoa!! They're throwing stuff from above!! Move!!”

And the streamers' heads were not the only targets of that food.

The police cars parked in front of the metal fence and the officers guarding the entrance were targeted as well.

“You're all the same, you fucking bastards!! I'm the one paying taxes, so why the fuck are you swarming into our neighborhood and turning it into a complete mess just to protect some criminal bastard?!”

The police hurriedly hunched their bodies, desperately trying to avoid the filth and eggs raining down from above.

But there wasn't really anywhere to hide.

—Splat!

“Ah, fuck, seriously······.”

When a raw egg burst against the fluorescent vest draped over his shoulder and sticky yolk ran down, a young officer with a boyish face irritably cursed.

“Hey, endure it.”

“No, Senior. Isn't this seriously too much? It's not like we're doing this because we want to. We're doing it because the higher-ups ordered us to.”

“So what are you going to do? Quit? Idiot. Didn't you say you spent two years holed up in Noryangjin because you wanted to become a cop? Even if it's filthy, grit your teeth and endure it. Enduring means winning. Those people throwing eggs over there will go to work tomorrow morning and do exactly the same thing, gritting their teeth and enduring even though it's filthy. And compared to them, we've still got it pretty good. Go out into society sometime. If this place is a battlefield, out there is hell. Pure hell.”

Terrible chaos.

From one corner of that chaos, Bareum, who had been watching everything unfold, quietly pulled his black hood deep over his head.

It was time to move.

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

Thank you!!