AGENT 42

The curly-haired guy was completely calculating. He had placed a sofa inside as if the warehouse were a genuine waiting area so we wouldn’t become suspicious, and he shot the hyung-nim, Jongtae, so the remaining organization members couldn’t react immediately. That bastard wasn’t a carrier for E8 for nothing.

“Howon, take off your shirt and press it against hyung-nim’s stomach!”

“Fuck, why is there so much blood!!”

Having been struck squarely in the back of the head, a dazed Yongnae was staring blankly at the warehouse door when the fishy smell of blood, pushing through the scent of petroleum and fertilizer, began to restart his stalled thoughts.

“Hyung-nim! Jongtae hyung-nim!”

“The bullet passed through! That’s why the bleeding won’t stop!!”

Jongtae had collapsed immediately after being shot, and the three members of the Black Horse Gang were surrounding him, at a loss for what to do. They had likely been stabbed with knives many times, but a gun must have been a first. Moreover, even Yongnae, who had no previous connection to Jongtae, had grown attached after spending a few days together and was greatly shocked; how much worse must it be for those who were of one family? He understood how they must feel.

“………”

But separate from understanding, his reason was speaking with surprising coldness and composure. It was tragic that Jongtae was shot, but the living had to escape immediately.

A small flame was blocking the main entrance, but it was a fire slightly insufficient to burn its way in here yet. Because of that, the gangsters were currently focused idly only on holding onto Jongtae, but from Yongnae’s perspective, there was a very high probability this would soon transform into a large conflagration.

Judging by the smell of the petroleum, the curly-haired guy had poured it from the inside and worked his way out to the entrance. This was because the smell was thicker further inside than at the entrance. That meant the fire was only at its current level because there wasn’t much petroleum poured at the entrance. Once those flames reached the inside, this place would be engulfed in a massive wall of fire in an instant.

The only exits were the main door blocked by fire and this one small window that wouldn’t open well. And even if they went to the main door, the curly-haired guy would have locked the door from the outside, and even if they somehow opened it and escaped, he might be waiting in front to shoot them with the gun he had just been holding.

That meant we were all meant to be trapped here and burn to death.

“Teacher! Can’t you treat hyung-nim?!”

“Do something!”

He wondered if these people truly thought of him as some sort of all-purpose agent, but he wasn’t a doctor, and the only medical treatment he knew how to perform was applying ointment and sticking on bandages. And to be truly cold, while Jongtae would likely fall into shock from the gunshot and not feel the fire even if the flames swept over him, the remaining people were in a position to die while their flesh burned away while fully conscious.

Right now, they had to focus on how to escape. And even if there were a doctor here, they would barely be able to stop the bleeding; performing treatment to remove a bullet in a filthy, abandoned factory over the sea like this would be impossible.

…Wait a moment.

Over the sea? A filthy, abandoned factory?

If this place is currently over the sea, there is plenty of water to extinguish the fire. The only question is how to draw water through this small window to suppress the fire.

“Teacher!!”

While Yongnae was thinking of a way to escape, Pilgu cried out, calling Yongnae’s name with bloodshot, resentful eyes. Those eyes were full of resentment that contained even a small amount of hope—knowing Yongnae couldn’t treat his hyung-nim, yet wondering if he could do something more than they, in their stupidity, could.

“…If the bullet passed through, he will soon go into shock due to excessive bleeding. Then he will die within a few minutes.”

“Shit, then what do we do!!”

“…There is nothing I can do. Not me.”

“Even so…! Something…!”

But there really was nothing Yongnae could do for him. If the bullet had passed through, Jongtae would soon go into shock due to excessive bleeding. Once in shock, he would die within minutes. Even this was just inaccurate knowledge he had picked up. In other words, Yongnae did not know a way to save the dying Jongtae who had been shot.

However, there was a way for the living to escape.

“We can’t… save hyung-nim, but we can all escape.”

“Not that crap!! Save hyung-nim!!”

Of course, his words would not reach their ears right now. The big hyung-nims of the Black Horse Gang had all been caught and imprisoned by the police, and Jongtae was likely the only one left. But if even Jongtae died from a gunshot in a foreign land, they would truly have nowhere to lean, so they could feel that Jongtae’s life was more important than their own right now. He understood.

“…I’m sorry.”

But, truly, there was nothing Yongnae could do for Jongtae.

“Please—!!”

Leaving behind the screaming Pilgu and Changsik, Yongnae moved his body. His own body kept hesitating at the fact that Jongtae had been shot in the stomach, but he had to live.

He had witnessed death once before his eyes. And he felt it then and now: he could not humbly accept that death was approaching him. Even when Lee Suji was collapsed and bleeding from the head, he was filled with the desire to survive by any means.

Why? Because he absolutely wanted to see the man once more.

The same was true now. He couldn’t die like this. He couldn’t die in such a futile way, trapped in an abandoned fertilizer factory and burning to death. If he was going to die so helplessly, he had to survive tenaciously even if he were pointed at for having no blood or tears.

Yongnae approached the plywood section that had creaked severely when the curly-haired guy returned to the warehouse entrance. He searched and found a piece of plywood that was quite rusted, where the board would lift if he stepped on the edge.

Rattle—

This is the place.

Yongnae brought a shovel from nearby, wedged it into the plywood, and pressed down like a lever to lift the board. But it seemed Yongnae was someone who had only ever held a pen his whole life. The plywood was heavier than expected, so Yongnae could not lift it alone.

He couldn’t be wasting time like this over something like this right now, and he resented his own lack of strength. Even so, his remaining conscience stung at the thought of asking the gangsters, who were wailing over losing a comrade who was like a brother, to help; while he was becoming anxious all by himself,

“Do I just need to lift this?”

“…Yes.”

Howon, the youngest of the organization, had quietly approached at some point and took the shovel from Yongnae. Wondering when he had come, Yongnae stared at Howon for a moment before looking toward where Jongtae was.

“………”

Pilgu was still there hugging Jongtae, and Changsik was approaching this way with his face still covered in tear stains.

“…What are you going to do by lifting this.”

“…Ah, I’m going to put the fertilizer in there and throw in a spark.”

“…Then what happens.”

Before becoming an abandoned factory, this place was a fertilizer factory. Judging by the smell of the fertilizer scattered everywhere, these were natural fertilizers. Natural fertilizer would have accumulated methane gas generated inside it over many years, and if a flame touched this methane gas, an explosion would soon occur.

Perhaps that was also why the factory was likely built over the water. Because if a fire were to break out in this small village, it would spread quickly, and if an explosion occurred in the factory because of that fire, they would have had to suppress it quickly.

“…I’m going to cause an explosion.”

“………”

“Soon the flames will come inside, meet with the large amount of fertilizer over there, and a big explosion will occur. Before that, we have to cause a small explosion on the floor and escape into the sea first.”

Even with a healthy body, this escape is quite dangerous. One could lose consciousness from a small chain explosion while entering the sea, or the warehouse could collapse as soon as one entered the sea, leading to being buried in the ocean along with the debris. In other words, with Jongtae’s current condition, it was an escape method that was absolutely impossible. That was why this was an escape method for the living.

“………”

“………”

And that was something they would all know, even if Yongnae didn’t say it.

“…You want me to pour the fertilizer in?”

“…Yes. Please put in three sacks.”

Changsik dragged the fertilizer over and poured it below the plywood Howon had easily opened. And Yongnae, who had been watching the scene silently, took one look at Pilgu, who was still hugging Jongtae and wailing, and then without hesitation scooped up a spark with the shovel from the main entrance where the fire was growing stronger.

“Please move back—.”

And after throwing that spark inside, he quickly threw his body backward. He himself had never conducted such an experiment nor seen one. It was merely knowledge he knew in theory from when he was getting his soil environment engineer certification. That methane produced from natural fertilizer explodes surprisingly often.

Boom—!