AGENT 19

Anyway, to think that Glasses is a Hong Konger…

“I thought it would be something like Jung Seok-hyun or Ahn Kyung-tae…”

“What? My name?”

“No. I mean We… izhen.”

“Crazy, Jung Seok-hyun suits him perfectly…!”

To think it’s the completely exotic “Weizhen,” a name so foreign it felt awkward even to utter.

Weizhen… and Susu.

It seemed Hong Kong names were more free-spirited than he thought. Judging only by Glasses’s name, it seemed like an ordinary name, but hearing Susu’s name, it sounded like a nickname for a young girl, which was cute.

Because the man was so beautiful, was that why they gave him the name Susu? The name and the face didn’t quite match, but it did suit the flashy man well regardless.

“…”

To be thinking only of the man no matter what, this was truly a sickness at this point.

He thought they might be able to catch the killer today, but they returned to the lodging without catching even a glimpse of the killer’s tail. He couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved at that.

“What are we going to use as a disguise to get in?”

A meeting was held in the living room of the officetel where the organization members, including Glasses and the bald man—that is, Weizhen and Lee Su-ji—were gathered together. It was to devise a method for how to disguise themselves and break into the houses.

“Milk delivery?”

“Do you speak before you think?”

“Um, TV repairman?”

“Those are usually done by appointment. The chance of getting caught is too high.”

“Fire safety inspection?”

“You’re starting to actually think, but I feel like even that would be by appointment in a rich neighborhood like this.”

“This f—ck. Then, you think of something.”

Weizhen shot down every single method Lee Su-ji spat out. However, those were all logical rebuffs, so Yongnae, who was listening quietly from the side, agreed with those words.

That’s right. In a wealthy neighborhood of that caliber, everything would run on a strict private appointment system. If they pushed their way in clumsily without professional knowledge, there was a very high probability they would be caught immediately and rumors would spread.

Therefore, they needed some kind of sharp master plan to enter the houses without getting caught…

Beep—!

The car horn that rang out when Lee Su-ji hit the steering wheel, and the woman who was pushing the stroller…

The face that looked like she was about to file a complaint.

What if they created a sudden city hall civil complaint situation in the neighborhood that wouldn’t run on a private appointment system?

“How about making them file a complaint?”

“A complaint? For what? Disturbance of the peace?”

“No. The police are dispatched for that.”

“Aha. Then, for what?”

There are many things for which civil complaints are filed at city hall. Streetlights, or school zones… But they couldn’t create a sudden complaint situation with those, and they couldn’t infiltrate houses with them. Even if they tried, there was a risk of being caught because they were clumsy and lacked professional knowledge.

If so, there was something that allowed him to use his most professional knowledge while creating a sudden complaint situation.

“Because of a malodor.”

“Mal—? Mal-chi? What is that?”

“…”

“The ‘chi’ as in to be intoxicated. The Chinese character for scent, chi. A bad smell.”

Is Lee Su-ji really a Korean person? Yongnae was momentarily flustered and couldn’t answer seeing him ask what mal-chi was, but Weizhen, who was next to him, explained it immediately on Yongnae’s behalf. No matter how he looked at it, that side seemed like the Korean person.

“Ah… What are you going to do with that?”

“…After spreading a malodor in the neighborhood, we say that the city has come out to inspect the sewers of each house for identification.”

They would intentionally go around scattering malodors little by little throughout the neighborhood. Then rumors would spread through the neighborhood in an instant, and they would file a complaint with city hall.

“What if a real city hall employee happens to stop by first?”

“The possibility of that is quite low.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I am a provincial office employee.”

Working at the provincial office, Yongnae knows. When a complaint is filed, especially regarding malodors, a physical inspection visit takes at least a week, no matter how fast it is. However, ordinary people who don’t know this will accept it even if they show up the day after the complaint was filed, and let them into the house.

“Great—!”

Lee Su-ji clapped his hands, saying that method was perfect, and the other organization members followed Lee Su-ji’s lead and clapped while looking at Yongnae.

“But what if the Researcher’s nose becomes paralyzed because of the malodor and he can’t smell the blood well?”

However, only Weizhen, who had been listening quietly alone, raised a question to Yongnae. As expected, it was true that he was in charge of the brains of this organization. That point of contention was excellent. For an ordinary person, there was a very high probability that the nose would be paralyzed by a larger smell covering a faint one.

“Isn’t the reason you offered me 300 million won because you knew I could distinguish them?”

However, Yongnae was a malodor identification agent for the Jeollabuk-do Provincial Office, possessing a sense of smell so formidable it rivaled that of a drug detection dog.

The organization decided to put the method Yongnae devised into action immediately. However, a hurdle arose as soon as they began.

“But how do we make the malodor?”

At the bald man’s question, talk came out from here and there about scooping up sewage, or running a food waste truck and whatnot, but those smells were things where the physical substance existed. Since a large amount of long-lasting malodor without physical substance had to spread through the neighborhood, they had to put the smell in gas tanks and keep moving through the neighborhood to spray it. To do that, there was no choice but to manufacture the malodor gas directly…

“Teacher, do you know how to make it?”

“No.”

“…Then what do we do?”

Yongnae had only done book-oriented study and hadn’t performed experiments other than those at the research center, so he had never manufactured a malodor. At the very least, hydrogen sulfide gas, which is the most commonly known, was easy to make, but even that required capturing the gas produced by dropping hydrochloric acid onto sodium sulfide, which was a considerably dangerous task for an ordinary person to perform.

“We have to buy it.”

“…Buy? Malodor?”

“Yes.”

So, the easiest way was to purchase hydrogen sulfide gas. At the research center, they would buy hydrogen sulfide gas and conduct experiments analyzing it alongside unknown collected samples. That meant it was certainly possible to buy hydrogen sulfide gas separately somewhere…

The problem was that Yongnae didn’t know exactly where to buy it. This was because the person in charge of reagent consumables always made the purchase, and when they relayed that the gas company would deliver it to the research center, he would just receive it from the front door.

Of course, he could make an inquiry to the person in charge of reagent consumables if he wanted to, but since Yongnae was currently officially in a state of being kidnapped, he had no way to contact them separately.

Even if he somehow managed to obtain it, there was another problem after that. That neighborhood was a neighborhood where 318 households of ordinary people lived. Since there could be casualties at the slightest slip-up due to hydrogen sulfide poisoning, even if they obtained the hydrogen sulfide gas, they also had to obtain 99.99% high-purity nitrogen gas and dilute it with that.

The dilution method was Yongnae’s specialty, so it was possible, but the problem was that they didn’t have the equipment.

In fact, whether it was hydrogen sulfide gas or 99.99% high-purity nitrogen gas, the Tedlar bags and cylinders used for dilution were things that were overflowing if he went to the research center, but they were this difficult to obtain outside.

“I can’t go to the research center, either…”

“The research center?”

Weizhen asked, looking back at Yongnae.

“Yes. If I go to the research center, everything is there. But right now, since it’s set up that I’ve been kidnapped, I can’t go.”

If it was thought he was kidnapped but he was now perfectly fine, doing experiments at the research center, it would definitely be a major problem even if he returned after catching the killer.

“That’s not it, right? What if we can use that to clearly announce the kidnapping?”

“Pardon?”

What is he talking about now? Yongnae looked at Weizhen with a look of doubt.

And at that moment—

Click.

“Right now, lead us to the research center.”

Weizhen pulled a gun from his waist and aimed it at Yongnae’s head.