Rust - Chapter 14



Only Krnovel

RUST-14

Maru laughed bitterly at the ticking sound of the second hand.

Director Choi and Director Baek were both giving me trouble, but here, Director Kim was a landmine.

What kind of past is behind that innocent face?

Although he managed to stick a knife in, the situation wasn’t all that good. Even though the knife was stuck in Kim Yang, he didn’t even groan.

Since he didn’t make a sound, I couldn’t tell how badly he had been hit. I just assumed he was lying under the desk.

Maru became nervous without realizing it. It was because he was seeing gunfire right before his eyes, something he had only seen in movies.

‘Two shots in a row?’

Double tap to fire two shots in succession.

The method was to increase killing power and accuracy by generally putting both feet into the same area.

But the gunshot I just saw was subtly different from Double Tap.

The Mozambique Drill is a method of stopping someone by shooting them 2-3 times in the torso and then confirming the kill by shooting them in the head. Kim’s method was to stop them with the first shot and then shoot them in the head.

In any case, the fact that she did it reflexively meant that Kim was a very skilled gunfighter.

after-

Do you look down on me because I’m a woman?

Funny thing, guns made men and women equal.

For a gunman, male or female, the important thing is ‘how well can you shoot?’

It was dangerous to stall for time by sticking a knife in a skilled gunfighter.

‘stomach?’

‘under?’

Where will the gun be pointed? Where will it be aimed?

Tick-tick-

The second hand urged.

Don’t waste time.

Huh- Maru took a long, deep breath and kicked the edge of the bookshelf with his foot.

A dense bookshelf, a computer, and even a monitor poured in toward where Kim Yang was hiding.

Utangtang

Taking advantage of the gap, Maru came down to the desk leg, which was the square of the gun barrel, and overturned the desk.

I flipped the desk over with such force that it felt like I was flipping a rice cake.

Maru rushed forward, using the overturned desk as cover.

Expanding field of vision, heightened senses. Spatial perception was done in the head like radar.

It feels like the frames are being cut off one by one. It feels like the optic nerves and brain are slowing down in processing information.

Ta-aaa-bak

Footsteps that sound like a stretched tape.

I saw Ms. Kim through the gap where the desk was overturned in slow motion.

A right hand buried in the rubble of a computer, monitor, and wires, and a pistol held in that right hand.

It felt like I made eye contact with Ms. Kim.

The sight of his right hand desperately trying to point the gun towards the floor.

The trigger is pulled.

Bullfight-

Bullfight-

A bullet flying through the air, fumbling around.

The desperate struggles were pitiful.

But it was too late.

The overturned desk suddenly fell on Ms. Kim.

Phew!

The slow time returned to normal. The desk overturned and Ms. Kim was trapped underneath.

Maru stuffed sashimi into Kim Yang’s right arm, which was sticking out of the desk, and twisted it.

Phu! Phu! Phu!

With a sharp, twisting sound of the blade on bone and a groan, Kim Yang’s right hand, which was fluttering, dropped the pistol she was holding.

Maru pulled out a gun from among the tangled mess of computers and monitors.

It was a Glock with a thick silencer.

after-

As he twisted the sashimi, blood gushed out from Kim Yang’s right arm.

Maru pressed one leg against the desk. Judging by the bleeding, he didn’t think he could hold out much longer.

As I was taking a breath, I heard a small voice from under the desk.

“Please…save me.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

Maru heard the dialect for the first time? He asked back without realizing it because of the similar accent.

“Please save me.”

“······.”

‘Oh shit – I should’ve finished it in one go.’

It’s only been two days since I went from being an ordinary person to something not ordinary, and less than 24 hours have passed.

Yesterday, Friday night, between 9 and 10 p.m., he killed Morino and Yamatsuki in Japan and escaped, and today, Saturday, at 6:08 a.m., he took a flight to Korea and arrived home around 10 a.m. He found his mother addicted to drugs, called 119, and sent her to the hospital. He also questioned and answered questions about the drug squad investigation that came with it. At around 11:20, he came and arrested Director Choi and Director Baek, and as of 12:40 p.m.

I was listening to the half-dead Kim Yang’s plea for help.

It was only that much time that had passed. The time that had changed from the everyday to the extraordinary.

Maru was a calm and composed person when things got tough, but he felt like his insides were twisting, not knowing what to do when she begged for his life.

If he had just given me a look filled with resentment like Director Choi, I could have ignored him.

Can you kill someone who is begging for his life with a dying voice?

Maru knew something had changed in him, and he used that to his advantage to survive.

So, did the existing ordinary floor disappear? That wasn’t the case.

I could joke around with Ki-soon and worry about my family. I could even worry about the future.

He was not a murderer. He was not that bastard.

Then, are you going to spare Miss Kim who asked for her life?

Maru was annoyed. He should have just killed her in one go, he didn’t like this sticky feeling.

“Just die quietly. For a bit.”

The voice on the desk trembled at Maru’s irritated retort.

“Please save me.”

“Fuck. If you put me in their shoes and I was lying there and begging for my life, would you have saved me?”

As if he hadn’t heard Maru’s question, the same words were repeated from under the desk.

“···Please save me.”

“······.”

“Please save me.”

“······.”

“Please save me. I’ll do anything if you just save me…”

“······.”

“Please, just spare me this once.”

The repeated pleas for help, like a spell. It seemed like something out of a dream.

Let’s not make that mistake again. When we send it, let’s send it in one go. Maru made a strange promise.

“Ah- sh- shut up before I kill you!”

“······.”

“Just spend the remaining time quietly repenting and letting go of your foolishness. Just a little.”

“I want to live. I really want to live. Please just let me live.”

It was a voice that touched the heartstrings, a sorrowful voice.

Maru felt like he was going crazy.

“Why should I save you? Huh?”

“If you spare me? If you spare me? Are you going to spare me so that I can put a bullet in the back of my head?”

In just a little while, he will lose consciousness from excessive bleeding and go quietly.

I felt like if I killed someone here because I was annoyed, I would feel like a murderer.

So, we decided to let it go naturally and let him die from excessive bleeding over time.

Maru thought so and ignored the sound coming from under the desk.

“I will change my status and run away to live far away.”

“I have information. I also know about medicine. It’s not just medicine.”

‘What kind of person is this?’

At this point, wouldn’t you usually just start cursing or crying?

She was a woman who really left me feeling uneasy.

“I know where the safe is too.”

“If you spare my life, I will go to another country and never come back.”

“Ask me anything. I’ll tell you everything I know. Please save me. Please.”

Despite Maru’s silence, Kim Yang’s plea was desperate. And among the things Kim Yang said, there were many things Maru wanted to know.

‘Ask me anything?’

Even now, what I wanted to ask was about my father and younger brother, whom I couldn’t reach. Originally, I was going to wake up Manager Hong, who had passed out, and ask him. But it wasn’t bad that Ms. Kim came out like this.

I was able to compare Kim Yang’s answer with Manager Hong’s words. That alone made me think that it wasn’t worth killing him right away.

‘Ms. Kim… I don’t know.’

Maru decided to act on instinct.

If you feel uneasy about killing him now, then let him live for now. If you still feel uneasy, then close your eyes and decide to kill him.

Maru took his feet off the desk he was standing on.

When she realized that the crushing weight was gone, Kim Yang began to move very carefully.

“Are you going to save me?”

“Come out first.”

Maru hid his body halfway behind a pillar and aimed his gun in the direction where Ms. Kim was.

He was planning to shoot whatever he had in his hand. As if he had read Maru’s thoughts.

As Kim Yang pushed the desk aside, she came out with nothing in her hands.

In the first place, it wasn’t a situation where he could lift anything. His right arm was a mess under his forearm, and his left had a knife stuck in his back, sticking out in front.

Maru’s gaze turned to Kim Yang’s right arm.

‘Ha- That’s how you write it.’

At some point, Ms. Kim was using a mouse cord and a ballpoint pen to stop the bleeding on her right arm.

Kim Yang’s innocent face was pale and bloodless. Even if the bleeding had been stopped, it seemed difficult to hold out for an hour.

“Do you know me?”

Kim Yang nodded. Before Maru went to Japan, Kim Yang had checked his workload and calculated his salary. They met face to face at least once a month, on payday.

“Then do you know where my father and younger brother are?”

Kim Yang nodded slightly again.

“Where are you?

“Are you going to save me?”

Ha- What if you shoot me and say you’ll spare my life?

“Look at what you’re doing. Where is my father?”

“This is Shinsegae Nursing Hospital.”

To a nursing home?

“Where is your little brother?”

Kim Yang swallowed, her mouth dry.

“Where is my brother? Do I really have to ask twice?”

Kim Yang’s parched mouth opened at Maru’s urging.

“Workshop number 4.”

“Where is workshop number 4? Here?”

“yes.”

Workshop 4? That’s where they work with pigs? And a ferry there?

As Maru’s murderous intent grew stronger, Ms. Kim raised her voice.

“I’m alive! I’m alive! My little brother is alive!!!”

Miss Kim couldn’t look straight at the floor.

The same person? Is this what it means to be human?

The surrounding atmosphere became gloomy. The air became heavy.

Kim Yang recalled the back alleys of China where corpses were strewn about.

People who died from floods and earthquakes.

Gangs wielding weapons fight over rotting corpses, trying to steal money and goods.

People giggling at the sight of it. The shadow of death that filled the place.

As Kim Yang sank into the swamp of the past, a voice was heard.

“Hey, Miss Kim, it’s all meaningless. Can’t you tell by looking at that kid’s eyes? That kid is only a shell of a person.”

Manager Hong, whose cheekbones were about to break and whose sashimi was stuck all the way to the handle, muttered as if he had come to his senses.

Ms. Kim thought Manager Hong was dead. But he was still alive with a knife stuck in his face?

“Wow, you see? I’m not dead yet. The kid stabbed me like a ghost.”

Maru glared at Manager Hong.

“Don’t look at it. I see you came alone. Did Director Choi and Director Baek leave?”

“T-T-Why is my little brother here?”

Manager Hong’s lips were twisted upward. It was neither a smile nor a sneer. It was even more bizarre because one side of his lip was not raised due to the sashimi embedded in his cheekbone.

“Didn’t I tell you? Your family is going to be screwed because of you.”

Maru pointed the gun at Manager Hong.

“Wait a minute. I told you I’m not dead yet!”

“Miss Kim- It’s useless. I told you so. That guy is a natural born rascal. He just needed a chance. He’s just a rascal who catches people. Look at me, if you weren’t here, Miss Kim, I would have shot him. I would have just killed him. He’s just born that way.”

“Shut up, you fucking punk. Who the hell are you to judge people!”

“Everyone has their own talents- kid? Ma- Someone like you has a talent for catching people, someone like me has a talent for seeing people, and Miss Kim over there has a talent for shooting guns. Didn’t I say that when I first saw you? I called you a butcher. Do you think I’m a fool now that I’ve come to this? Am I wrong?”

Maru was furious. If only he hadn’t sent this kid to Japan in the first place, if only this kid hadn’t said he would make him a butcher.

“Wow- You just want to get hit? Really? How does your heart feel when you kill someone… Are you all hazy and all that? No? That’s why. Ma- Don’t just look at me and shoot me if you want to. I won’t live because I’m so dirty. But I’m curious about one thing. Do you think you’ll be able to sleep soundly after killing me? Are you confident that you’ll survive? Do you have the confidence to take care of your family?”

“······.”

“They say one hand can’t stop ten. But you will live longer than your family. Then, as you watch your family die one by one, you will think, ‘What if I hadn’t done that back then?’”

“······.”

“Everyone leaves. How long can you hide this? Do you think the company will just sit still? I’m a manager, but what’s above that? There’s a manager, a director, an executive director, a president, and a chairman. If the size of the business I manage as a manager is that big, can you imagine the size of the company?”

“Avoiding the company isn’t the end. What’s the salty fish? What’s the trace? Can you handle it on your own?”

“What about your mother and brother who are addicted to medicine? If the medicine is so fucking bad, do you think rich people would pay a lot of money for it? It’s effective and good, so that’s why they pay that much for it. There’s only a little difference between poison and medicine, right?”

“The medicine you took was like that. You may think that I took you hostage with the medicine, but if it weren’t for the medicine, it would have been a bigger problem.”

“You think you can go back to your daily life after killing people like this? It might be different before you saw blood, but it’s different after you’ve seen blood. Don’t you feel that way too? Do you think there’s a place other than the company that can take care of you? Even if it was my fault to start with, do you think it has to be like this until the end?”

Manager Hong held out one hand.

“If you’re not going to shoot, hold my hand. Director Choi and Director Baek, they were my two sons whom I raised. They were like my two arms. They left, but what can I do? I will keep in mind that you sent them away, and that’s why I won’t go.”

“······.”

“Is this situation your fault? It’s my fault. It’s my fault for not thinking that you wouldn’t be able to handle it, and it’s my fault for sending Director Choi and Director Baek away empty-handed. Kani, let’s both put aside our mistakes and grudges. Let’s put them aside and live together. Let’s live. Hold my hand. Forget about it and go together. You won’t regret it.”

This is an X-ray image similar to Manager Hong’s condition.

In fact, it is said that the patient who received that injury lived a normal life.

It’s a matter of the account.