Chapter 6

Gimcheon Juvenile Prison (5)

“What? Why are you coming out alone?”

One of the guys guarding the equipment storage room door frowned as he looked at me.

“Hyung, what are you doing in there? The maintenance period is almost over.”

There was no response from the storage room to his shout.

“Hey, what's going on? Move aside.”

He pushed me aside and went inside, only to let out a scream.

“AAAAAGH!!! FUCK!!! DO-HYEON HYUNG!!!”

Bae Do-hyeon hung limply from a pipe on the ceiling, a cord around his neck.

And beneath him lay a wooden box.

“Do-hyeon hyung!! Fuck!! Someone's hanged himself in here!! Somebody!! Somebody help!!!”

“Boss!!!”

The other lackey, who had remained outside the door, hurried into the storage room as well. Their movements bordered on panic. Yes, that was probably how ordinary people reacted when they witnessed someone's death.

One of the lackeys desperately tried to lift Bae Do-hyeon's already lifeless body.

Meanwhile, the other climbed onto something and struggled to untie the knot around Bae Do-hyeon's neck.

“Fuck!! I can't undo this knot!! A knife!! Get a knife!!”

“What fucking knife!! Hey, just pull it until it snaps!!”

While the two, who had practically lost their minds, caused an uproar, other inmates noticed the commotion and began gathering around.

—CRASH!!!

Somehow, the cord tied around the pipe came loose, and Bae Do-hyeon's massive body slammed mercilessly onto the cement floor. One of the lackeys climbed onto the corpse, which had collapsed into a grotesque position.

“Hyung!! Do-hyeon hyung!!”

Had he learned it somewhere? At least he was attempting CPR with a fairly convincing posture. The other lackey repeatedly slapped Bae Do-hyeon's cheeks, desperately shouting at him to wake up.

And right at that moment.

A shrill whistle sounded outside the storage room, cutting through the chaotic atmosphere of the auditorium.

—WHEEEEEET!! WHEEET!!!

“What the hell is going on in the equipment room!! Everybody freeze!!”

Three correctional officers from the mobile patrol unit supervising the afternoon maintenance period stormed into the storage room, gripping their batons tightly.

Realizing that something was seriously wrong, one of the officers shouted loudly. An emergency alarm instantly rang throughout the entire cellblock, and urgent voices from the Security Division filled the storage room through their radios.

“Hey!! Get your hands off him right now!! Everybody on the floor!! NOW!!!”

“No, Do-hyeon hyung isn't breathing!! Fuck!! Shouldn't we try to save him first?!”

The excited lackeys put up some resistance against the correctional officers' shouting.

“Numbers 147 and 192, back away and get on the floor immediately!!”

Of course, I didn't bother resisting and stepped back as instructed. Just as I was about to return to the cellblock with the other inmates, leaving the chaotic auditorium behind, a deep voice called me out from behind.

“Number 412, stop right there.”

It was a senior correctional officer from the mobile patrol unit who had been handling the situation. He stared sharply at me while pressing the transmission button on his radio.

“Number 412, Jeong Bareum. He's a witness at the scene and a prime suspect. Don't send him back to the regular cellblock. Transfer him directly to the Security Division's interrogation room.”

Following that order, another correctional officer who had been standing by approached me. He led me away from the line of ordinary inmates.

It was a typical interrogation room, the kind you'd see in movies or dramas.

How much time had passed?

The door opened, and a graying correctional officer entered.

His expression was full of annoyance.

He dropped heavily into the chair opposite me.

“Number 412, Jeong Bareum?”

“Yes.”

“Quite an impressive record you've got. Prestigious foreign language high school, excellent grades. A well-behaved student who fired a gun in court.”

“······.”

“Yeah, an elite student from a prestigious school. Someone whose success in life seemed practically guaranteed. How does it feel to end up in a cesspit like this? Must be pretty ridiculous watching pieces of trash you wouldn't even consider human beings on the outside strutting around like they own the place, huh?”

“······.”

“Come on, be honest. Didn't it piss you off when that Bae Do-hyeon bastard kept acting tough and getting under your skin? You've got the guts to pull the trigger in a courtroom, so how hard could it be to take out one worthless piece of trash? Am I right?”

His words were less a calculated attempt at leading questions and more the cynical probing of an inmate sitting before him.

“······I didn't do it.”

My voice was low and dry.

“You little shit, I know. Anyone can see there's no way a scrawny bastard like you could take down someone that big. But here's the strange thing. Those two lackeys said they heard some kind of commotion inside. Yet the one who ended up dead was that huge bastard, while you, Number 412, don't have a single injury on you. Isn't that strange? Or am I the only one who thinks so?”

“Now that you mention it, I think it's rather strange too.”

“Right? You think it's strange too?”

“Yes. If I were investigating this case, I think the first thing I'd ask is why those two people went there in the first place. I suppose you're not particularly curious about that, Investigator?”

The investigator's eyebrows twitched.

The true personality concealed beneath his slippery manner briefly emerged. He leaned back deeply in his chair and muttered in a low voice.

“You arrogant little shit.”

A hint of displeasure appeared on his previously annoyed face.

“This is why I can't stand you so-called elites. Even in a situation like this, you have to act like you're somebody important. Number 412. Fine, with that brilliant brain of yours that used to rank first in school, what exactly do you think I'm overlooking? Why don't you enlighten me? What the hell were the two of you doing in that storage room?”

“He tried to force me into prostitution. Before that, he said he was going to break my spirit.”

!?

—BANG!!!

He slammed his palm against the desk and sprang to his feet.

“What kind of ridiculous lies are you telling me?!”

“I'm not lying. If you investigate even a little, you'll find everything out.”

“······Fine, let's say that's true. Then why the hell would the bastard who was trying to force you into prostitution suddenly commit suicide in there?”

“We talked. I explained to him how terrible the things he was doing were. Then he suddenly said that trash like him deserved to die and tried to kill himself. I tried to stop him, and there was a bit of a struggle. I imagine that's what they heard outside.”

“Ha! So you're telling me a piece of trash like Bae Do-hyeon suddenly repented after listening to you and decided to commit suicide? And the commotion happened because you were trying to stop him? You seriously expect me to believe that?”

“Well, I've simply told you exactly what happened.”

The investigator let out a disbelieving laugh.

“So you're saying that's really the truth?”

“There's nothing I can do if you don't believe me, Investigator. From what I heard, he'd previously gotten off with just two years after a victim he'd been forcibly sexually exploiting committed suicide. He also told me he deeply regretted his past behavior.”

“You'd better be telling the truth about all of this. Every suicide inside a prison gets sent to the National Forensic Service for an autopsy anyway. Once they examine the body, they'll be able to tell whether it was suicide or murder disguised as suicide.”

“Investigator. Do you really believe I could have overpowered and killed that man in a room where it was just the two of us?”

I raised both arms slightly.

They were frail arms that looked as though they'd never lifted anything heavier than a pencil in their entire lives. The investigator answered without showing the slightest sign of surprise.

“Well, if you'd used some kind of drug······.”

“Then, as you said, the National Forensic Service will find that out.”

A heavy silence descended upon the interrogation room.

Deep suspicion. And the annoyance of having trouble erupt inside the prison. Perhaps even an administrative fear that this might develop into a much larger incident.

The investigator closed his file and stood up.

“······You can go for now.”

“Yes.”

____________

“So it's true?”

“······Yes.”

—BANG!!!

“Those crazy bastards. No, so you're telling me they were actually forcing inmates into male prostitution inside the prison? Fuck! And the correctional officers really had no idea it was happening? Are you sure? You're not trying to cover up the fact that some bastards were taking kickbacks and looking the other way, are you?”

At the warden's furious shouting, the head of the Security Division nervously swallowed.

“Absolutely, absolutely not.”

“Ha, this is driving me insane. Chief Im, you understand this is no ordinary matter, right? I'm not going down alone over this. You'll lose your job too. And not just dismissal. This is grounds for outright removal from public service. You'll lose every last bit of your retirement benefits.”

“Please calm down, Warden. I'll make absolutely sure nothing like that happens.”

“Make sure? You think this is something you can just handle?”

“It's a simple suicide case anyway. We're currently concluding that it was an impulsive suicide caused by anxiety about readjusting to society as his release date approached.”

“What about the autopsy results?”

“There are some bruises on the body, but apparently, the injuries sustained while bringing him down and during the subsequent CPR are mixed together, making it difficult to distinguish them clearly. Most importantly, there's no indication of drug use. As you know, Number 412, Jeong Bareum, is a skinny high school student who spent his entire life studying. The idea that he could physically overpower and hang a man weighing over a hundred kilograms with his bare hands, without using drugs, is simply impossible.”

The warden took a long drag on his cigarette and stared directly at the head of the Security Division.

“If even a single line about some sexual exploitation ring inside the prison, like that Jeong Bareum bastard claims, leaks to the media······ You understand what I'm saying, right?”

“Don't worry. I've taken strict measures to ensure that never happens.”

The warden slammed his red approval stamp onto the documents.

“······You'd better make damn sure you handle this properly.”

“Yes, Warden.”

_____________

Bae Do-hyeon's death passed with astonishing ease, as though nothing had happened.

In truth, it wasn't particularly strange. Around sixty inmates die each year in South Korean prisons. Of those, more than ten deaths are suicides. His being a minor made the case somewhat unusual, but an inmate committing suicide was hardly an unheard-of occurrence.

At the same time, however, someone's death was also an extraordinary event.

Through this incident, I came to understand something clearly. Reality was different from novels and comics, and no matter how terrible a prison might be, people dying inside it was no ordinary matter.

Therefore, a series of suicides in the same prison would certainly attract attention.

So I changed my methods.

It was simple enough.

After all, a Strength stat of 50, surpassing human limitations, made a great many things possible.

During recreation, a light blow to the abdomen was enough to rupture someone's pancreas and leave them in a vegetative state from an 'acute illness' of unknown origin. And amid the confusion, a casual kick to the tailbone with the tip of my foot could inflict what appeared to be 'myelitis of unknown cause.'

And in the process, I learned several other things.

The system classified brain death as death.

And permanent disabilities such as paralysis of the lower body also awarded a small amount of Karma, though not as much as killing someone.

Time passed remarkably quickly.

“Number 412, you've got a visitor.”

“I'm not going.”

“You really are stubborn. Seriously. How can you refuse to go even once?”

“Come on, our cell boss isn't the only stubborn one. That attorney who faithfully comes all the way down here at least once every six months is just as stubborn.”

And just like that, four years passed.

When all the time I had been sentenced to serve had finally come to an end, the words displayed before my eyes were as follows.

[Current Status]

Strength: 50 (First Limit)

Durability: 50 (First Limit)

Stamina: 50 (First Limit)

Karma Held: 4,200

[Items Held]

First Limit Breakthrough Rune Fragment (1/3)

—CLANK.

The thick iron gates of Gimcheon Prison opened.

© Myoyeop#12ipk

Author's Note

It's time to really get the story moving.

I sincerely hope you'll continue to support it.

Thank you!!