Chapter 342 (1/2)
* * *
Crack, creak, tick—
The rhythmic sound of nail-biting rang out within the room. The maker of that sound was currently hunched up with narrowed shoulders, displaying his withdrawn and sorry state.
“Man, you’re being too damn noisy over there! Hey, boomer uncle over there, can’t you put a cork in it or something?!”
“Let him be. Wasn’t he supposed to be a big shot or something on the outside? It must’ve been a real shock to the system to end up in this place.”
“Aha! So he used to be a big fish, then?”
“Kekeke. And that’s why I’ve been having so much fun tormenting that geezer lately. Oi, uncle! Come over here and be my footstool for a while. I wanna take a nap.”
Convicts wearing the same type of attire as the nail-biting man stared at him and sneered mockingly.
Apparently, no matter how mentally out of sorts he was, he could still hear what the convicts were saying.
The Authority’s ex-director subjected to their mockery looked down at his own fingers that had started bleeding after he ran out of nails to bite. He never had a habit of biting his nails before in his life, but now that he was incarcerated, he understood why some people started chewing their nails when feeling anxious.
Number 386—that was the director’s new “name.”
It would at least be bearable if he got a solitary cell, but too bad for him, that didn’t happen. He had to share a cell with other low-class criminals.
These people had lived far too different lives compared to the director.
They were hardened career criminals who committed murder, assault, and attempted rape among many others. The director just couldn’t accept the fact that he now had to live among these animals.
“Number 386. You have a visitor.”
The director’s head snapped up. He shot up from his spot and smiled brightly as if his once-escaped soul had returned to him.
“Finally. Someone has come to get me out,” he thought.
Someone who would rescue him from this hellhole.
The director headed to the visiting rooms. He began harboring baseless anticipation that maybe Minister Jeon Gyeong-guk had personally come to pay him a visit today.
If the director had been maintaining his former cold and calculating mentality, he would never ever think of something like that.
“Someone will definitely get me out of here. I mean, just how much money did I spread around already? Without a doubt…”
Creaaak—
Before he could finish that thought, he arrived at the visiting room.
And when he did, someone he definitely didn’t expect to see came into view beyond the reinforced glass.
“Ah, so you came?”
“…Chairman Lee Ju-ho.”
Certainly, Lee Ju-ho was a big fish. He could even be the person holding the “key” in this entire situation.
If Lee Ju-ho cooperated, then the director might be able to get out of this place.
“Ugh! Don’t they clean this place or something? Why is it so dirty in here? How about the inside, though? Is it more hygienic at least?”
“Why are you…here…?”
“Oh, that. I had something to say to you face to face, you see. Also, I wanted to check out how you look like these days, so you can say that it’s like hitting two birds with one stone.”
Lee Ju-ho instantly shattered the director’s hope.
He revealed that he wasn’t here to help the director and made sure to ram the point home.
The director growled back, “Just what more do you want to say to me?”
“It’s about your sentence. It’s been decided that you’ll get life without parole. An announcement will be made soon, probably.”
Thud—
The director felt like a heavy chunk of lead crash-landed inside his head.
“The vice minister, the section chief, the Authority-affiliated A-Rank awakener capable of using mind control skill, Yu Min-hyeok, plus the others connected to you, they were all fired from their positions. Meanwhile, the minister is being disciplined. And all your wealth has been confiscated.”
“But why…are you…me…?”
“I wanted you to despair. All the money you’ve been spreading around and the connections you’ve made through that, well, I just wanted to tell you that they are all useless now, so you shouldn’t hold any hope anymore,” Lee Ju-ho sneered.
The director clearly witnessed that expression, causing his eyes to instantly redden and his fist to clench tightly in anger.
Bang—!
“Why are you doing this to me?! Even if I did something wrong, this…”
He pounded on the glass partition and roared out frantically.
Even if he was in the wrong, why was the other side going this far?
“Isn’t this way over the line?!”
That was the director’s honest thought.
“This incident. The majority of your plan was focused on proving the fault of the association’s system by any means necessary,” Lee Ju-ho replied.
“…”
“But the plan to stop the dungeon in Cheonan wasn’t all that detailed and didn’t seem like well thought out. To me, it looked like you went, it’s not that important so this much should suffice.”
“What are you even…?”
“The idea behind that action was, probably, if we fail to stop it, then it can’t be helped. We’ll just dump the responsibility on the association. Isn’t that right?”
The director clamped his mouth shut at Lee Ju-ho’s question because the latter’s assertion was on the money.
It was true that the plan was to blame the association for messing up the dungeon raid order if the Authority’s people failed to stop Cheonan’s dungeon outbreak for some reason.
“A bastard who treats people’s lives like disposable insects is saying what now? This is too much? Don’t make me laugh.”
BANG—!
Crack, split—
Lee Ju-ho punched the glass wall.
The bulletproof glass began cracking apart, and the director flinched in shock and hurriedly stumbled back.
“If it was up to me, I’d have killed you already. So, let me ask you a favor, okay?”
Shove—
Lee Ju-ho shot a glare filled with bloodlust and shoved back his chair to stand up.
“You, stay in there for the rest of your miserable life until everyone forgets about you and then die a pathetic and lonely death all alone. Because if you do somehow weasel your way out of here, I’ll end up killing you with my own hands.”
“…”
“You get what I’m saying, right? Dear mister director—no, wait—” Lee Ju-ho turned around to leave and, while exiting the room, called out the director’s name, “Mister Song Gyeong-tae.”
The director, or rather, Song Gyeong-tae, stared at his face’s reflection on the cracked glass pieces.
Song Gyeong-tae. He hadn’t been called that name in a long time, and the moment he heard it, he came to a sudden realization: he was no longer the holder of the position “director” and that even if he got out of here somehow, the government position meant to shield him no longer existed.
“Ha, hahaha…”
For the last time, Lee Ju-ho glanced at ex-director Song Gyeong-tae, who was chuckling hollowly, and moved to leave the visiting room.
Before he could fully step outside, though, he saw it. He saw Song Gyeong-tae’s hand slowly, ever so agonizingly slowly, crept toward the shattered glass pieces.
And then…
“Hey, you stinking punk! Stop!”
The roar of the guards that pounced on Song Gyeong-tae could be heard afterward.
* * *
With that, the incident had been mostly taken care of.
This incident could be seen as a complicated matter that involved the awakener management bureau, the Authority, and the association, plus all the associated political implications surrounding it, but Su-hyeun didn’t think of the whole affair as all that complicated.
After all, it wasn’t a complicated or challenging incident in the first place.
He believed that getting rid of the director was an easy thing to do as long as he wanted it done. The issue had always been with the right timing or finding the good-enough justification, but the fight itself had never been a fair one, to begin with.
Indeed, the problem Su-hyeun found far more troubling was something else entirely.
“Which one should I choose?”
Agility or stamina?
They were both important stats.
By raising agility, he would be able to move around much faster than before, while raising stamina would afford him far sturdier defense, better resistance against magic, and also faster recovery speed.
As both stats were important, he had to agonize quite a bit over his decision.
Eventually, though, he made up his mind.
[You are spending the single free stat point.]
[Stamina has risen by one.]
[Your physical body has exceeded the realm of human beings by a step.]
[You have acquired a “qualification of godhood.”]
This would be his second time witnessing that last part of the message.
With this, he now had three qualifications of godhood—strength, fire, and stamina.
And when stamina reached the 100-point mark, his physical body took yet another step beyond the realm of human beings.
“So, only agility and reflex remain.”