Chapter 03
The Guys Who Deserve to Die
The Power of the Mask
The unfamiliar man in the mirror wasn’t me, yet he was me.
How on earth had this happened?
If the status window was correct, I would return to my own face after twelve hours.
I touched my cheek, and the man in the mirror did exactly the same.
I examined my body.
I was a little shorter, but my physique was lean and muscular.
“Phew.”
I dropped to the floor with a thud.
What was I supposed to do now?
It was a ten-minute walk home.
This was the last remaining hillside shantytown in Seoul, on the verge of redevelopment, so there weren’t many neighbors left. There was also a back route I could take, meaning I could get home without being seen.
4:30 p.m.
I hurried to finish the cleanup so I could go home as soon as possible.
“Excuse me.”
I turned around and saw two men who looked to be in their mid-thirties. They were wearing jeans and T-shirts.
“Team Leader, there are absolutely no signs of foul play. We believe the deceased died of natural causes due to illness.”
The team leader looked at me and smiled.
Something about him sent a chill down my spine.
“We’re the police.”
“Yes, hello.”
His prominent jaw and thick eyebrows gave him an intimidating appearance.
“Did you notice anything unusual or out of the ordinary while cleaning?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Cleaning up a place where someone has died must be difficult work. Keep it up.”
The team leader looked around the room and left, talking to the detective beside him.
“Have we found any grudges, debts, or romantic entanglements?”
“Nothing so far.”
“What about the family?”
“They refused to claim the body.”
“That’s unfortunate.”
Even though I hadn’t committed a crime, my heart felt as if it were about to burst.
The team leader’s gaze was so sharp that I couldn’t stop worrying he might see through my mask.
I needed to finish up quickly.
I put the clothes into bags, stacked the paper separately, and sorted the plastic and metal.
Huh?
I noticed something had changed about my body.
I was exerting the same amount of effort as usual when lifting things, yet everything felt lighter.
The status window I’d seen earlier came to mind.
[All abilities are enhanced by 10% compared to those of your original body.]
So, the stronger my original body became, the stronger my masked body would become as well.
I needed to test this.
With my enhanced strength, I finished the job sooner than expected and headed home.
The next day.
The face that had transformed into that of a middle-aged man returned to its original appearance after twelve hours had passed.
[One minute remaining until termination.
▶ 00:00:59
Remove the mask.]
Apparently, if I didn’t take the mask off before the time ran out, I wouldn’t be able to return to my original face.
175 cm, 82 kg.
The middle-aged man had been three centimeters shorter than me and weighed two kilograms more.
On my way home after finishing work, the owner of Modernization Supermarket, the woman who ran the little store on the uphill road, predictably stopped me again.
“Uncle, you’re late today. Aren’t you buying cigarettes?”
“I still have some left. I’ll buy them tomorrow.”
“You do hard labor, but you don’t seem to smoke much. Do you need any apples?”
“I still have some left.”
“Business is bad again today. I guess I’ll close up and go home.”
“Have a good evening.”
I understood that she was trying to turn me into a regular customer now that I’d moved into the neighborhood, but her constant attempts to pressure me into buying something whenever I passed by were uncomfortable.
As darkness deepened, a single streetlight cast a faint glow over the uphill road.
After walking for a while, I spotted a group of teenagers loitering among the rows of empty houses.
They were smoking and glaring at me.
“Hey! Bro!”
I pretended not to hear them and kept walking.
“Fuck! Are you deaf? We’re talking to you! Hey! I said stop!”
Their way of addressing me had changed from bro to hey, you.
Redevelopment was scheduled to begin in this neighborhood within two years, and half the residents had already moved away.
The higher elevations, in particular, had become hangouts for delinquent teenagers. As a result, I was practically the only resident left up here.
I ignored them and continued uphill.
“This bastard’s ignoring us.”
The biggest guy ran over and blocked my path.
“Hey! Who the fuck do you think you are?”
High school students were easy enough to handle.
I’d served in the Special Warfare Command and risen to the rank of staff sergeant. Brats like these wouldn’t normally be worth more than a single punch.
“What do you want?”
“Now you’re talking. The supermarket lady is so damn strict that she won’t sell us alcohol. You go buy some for us and bring it to the house with the blue gate.”
“High school students aren’t allowed to drink. I’m not running errands like that for you.”
“Look at this asshole! You’re young, but you talk like some old-fashioned geezer. You need a beating.”
It happened in an instant.
Two of them grabbed my legs from behind and pulled me down. The big guy climbed on top of me and unleashed a barrage of punches.
Kicks struck my side and head.
It was miserable to be reliving the same horrific experiences I’d suffered during my school days, even now that I was well into my thirties.
“I know you live at the top of this hill. If you report us, I’ll fucking kill you!”
“Don’t kill him. Just cripple the bastard so he spends the rest of his life in a wheelchair.”
I wasn’t afraid.
I could easily subdue these punks.
But I’d been trained to become a human weapon. If I lost control of my anger, I couldn’t predict what I might do.
Hold it in.
I got back to my feet.
“You fucking bastard! Just try reporting us! I’ll grind your head into the asphalt!”
“This was just a taste of what’s coming. Watch yourself.”
I lost count of how many times I took deep breaths.
More than twenty years of accumulated rage, dating back to my time in the orphanage, couldn’t be measured precisely. I had no idea what I might do if all that anger finally came pouring out.
I had to keep it under control.
I would overcome it through exercise.
I opened the gate and went inside.
There was a wooden platform in the small courtyard, a neatly maintained little vegetable garden, and some exercise equipment.
A basement storage room provided space for all sorts of odds and ends.
A deposit of ten million won and monthly rent of 350,000 won.
I liked this place.
I sat on the wooden platform and calmed myself down.
“Phew.”
I needed to sweat out my anger.
I lay down on the bench press.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
[All abilities are enhanced by 10% compared to those of your original body.]
I’d noticed the difference while cleaning, but I wanted to be certain.
I went inside, took out the mask, and put it on. Then I checked the time.
8:55 p.m.
The previous night, I’d had to set three alarms before going to sleep.
The condition that I had to remove the mask on time, or risk never returning to my original face, was frightening.
I lay down on the bench press and lifted the barbell loaded with 80 kilograms.
Normally, I would be exhausted after doing four sets of five repetitions with 80 kilograms.
But what was this?
Even after completing all four sets, I still had energy left.
I did five more repetitions.
There was no doubt about it. Wearing the mask made me stronger.
Should I teach those bastards a lesson?
There were no CCTV cameras here, and hardly anyone ever passed through the area.
Since I was wearing the mask, I could conceal my identity, too.
After weighing the idea from every angle, I decided to follow my instincts.
Those bastards will definitely keep tormenting other people.
I used that thought to justify my decision.
I opened the gate and walked downhill when I heard the faint sound of a woman’s voice.
“Help me…”
The sound was coming from the house with the blue gate.
The same house where the high schoolers had told me to deliver the alcohol.
I ran toward it.
Voices drifted through the gate.
“Shut up!”
“We’re just trying to have some fun with you. You’ll enjoy it, too.”
I kicked the gate open and charged inside.
A schoolgirl stood before them, her uniform skirt pulled up and several buttons of her blouse undone, exposing her cleavage.
Her body was trembling like a leaf in the wind.
In front of her stood the big guy with his pants off. Three other boys stood behind him, snickering.
They were the same bastards who had beaten me earlier.
“Nothing but trash.”
All their eyes turned toward me.
“What the hell?”
“Barely old enough to have hair on your balls, and you’re already going out of your way to do the worst things imaginable.”
“Looks like a bunch of assholes are looking for trouble today. Hey! Smash his fucking head!”
At the big guy’s command, one of the boys approached me.
“Now that you’re in here, you’re not getting out. Looks like you ate something you shouldn’t have for dinner…”
Before he could finish speaking, my fist shot straight into his jaw.
He toppled backward and began foaming at the mouth.
“What the fuck?! You crazy bastard!”
Another boy charged recklessly toward me.
When someone underestimated their opponent and attacked without thinking, defeat was inevitable.
His openings were painfully obvious.
I slipped slightly to the side and threw a right hook toward his temple.
Had I put too much force into it?
The second boy collapsed like a dried squid, his body going limp as he lost consciousness.
Only then did the big guy and the remaining boy begin to panic.
One of them approached me with a mountaineering knife drawn.
“Don’t come any closer! I’ll kill you!”
“You’re the one coming toward me.”
I’d undergone countless military training exercises in fighting opponents armed with knives.
If I wanted to, I could grab the blade, twist the weapon into a reverse grip, and sever his carotid artery.
But I couldn’t do that to a bunch of kids.
The blade thrust toward my torso came into clear view.
I lightly struck the back of his hand with the edge of my palm, seized his wrist, and twisted it before driving my elbow into his cheekbone.
He went unconscious immediately.
The big guy froze in place.
The last boy was trembling and desperately begging for forgiveness, so I sent his head flying with a soccer-style kick.
I turned to the schoolgirl, who was shaking uncontrollably.
“Miss, go home. You’re free to report this to the police, but I’d prefer it if you didn’t. I’ll punish them myself.”
She gave me a slight bow and ran toward the gate.
Her legs seemed to give way beneath her, and she stumbled several times.
I gathered the boys who were sprawled across the floor.
One was frozen in terror. Another had turned deathly pale. A third’s lips were trembling, and the last was unconscious.
“If you’ve committed a crime, you have to pay the price.”
I covered one boy’s mouth with my left hand and repeatedly drove straight punches into his abdomen with my right.
I could feel the sensation of his internal organs rupturing through my fingertips, and it gave me a strange sense of pleasure.
Perhaps it was the feeling of more than twenty years of pent-up resentment slowly melting away.
By the time I’d dealt with the remaining three in the same manner, the world had fallen into a vast, swallowing silence.
[Revenge successful.
Transformation Personas unlocked.
Young woman and elderly person added.
Revenge Credits: 1]
Magang Police Station
Team Leader Jo Tae-su entered the office, greeting the other detectives as he walked in.
“Morning!”
“Good morning, sir.”
Jo Tae-su entered the area marked Violent Crimes Team 1.
“Good morning, Team Leader.”
“Anything happen overnight?”
“There was an assault in Ungung-dong. Detective Team 3 went to investigate.”
“Was it a fight between high school kids?”
Jo Tae-su knew that Ungung-dong, an area scheduled for redevelopment, was being used as a hideout by delinquent youths.
So he assumed it was just an ordinary fight.
“Apparently, four people were beaten up by a single assailant. They suffered intestinal ruptures in the lower abdomen, but what’s strange is that the surrounding tissue damage is remarkably similar in all four cases.”
“You mean they were struck in the same place with the same amount of force?”
“That’s why it’s strange. This doesn’t look like a typical brawl between kids.”
“Really?”
Jo Tae-su leaned back in his chair, then noticed Detective Pyo from Team 3 walking in.
“Detective Pyo! Get over here!”
Detective Pyo approached him.
“Was it one guy who did it?”
“Based on the method of assault, that’s what we have to assume. The kids won’t talk.”
“Why not?”
“That’s what we can’t figure out. They just say a fight broke out and refuse to give us any details.”
Jo Tae-su scratched his forehead before speaking.
“They have a reason to keep quiet about something. Detective Woo is good at getting people to talk. We’ll take over the case.”
“Sounds good.”
Jo Tae-su turned to Detective Kang, one of his team members.
“Have the Yeopo faction and the Dongtak faction been keeping quiet?”
“For now, yes. But things will get noisy again once Ma Pung-gang of the Yeopo faction gets out of prison soon.”
“Gangsters like those bastards keep coming back because the punishments are too lenient. We’ll keep an eye on that.”
Jo Tae-su stood up and continued.
“Detective Woo, go get statements from the victims. Detective Kang, you’re coming with me.”
“Team Leader, take it easy out there. Even a veteran soldier knows to watch out for falling leaves.”
Lieutenant Jo Tae-su.
An ace detective who had maintained the highest violent-crime arrest rate in the Seoul metropolitan area for seven consecutive years.
If he continued at his current pace through next year, he would likely be promoted to senior inspector and transferred to the National Police Agency headquarters.
“I’m almost forty myself. I need to catch as many criminals as I can while my body still lets me.”
“Just take it easy when wrapping things up. The next team leader will have a hard time following in your footsteps if you keep this up.”
“A detective’s job is to catch criminals. Let’s go.”
Jo Tae-su took Detective Kang with him and left the police station.
