AGENT 25

The stench pierces the nose.

The phrase “the stench pierces the nose” is likely something one has heard at least once in their life. It is not an exaggeration for a severe, unpleasant smell. It originated because when one smells an odor that exceeds a certain limit, it truly feels as if it is sharply stabbing the tip of the nose!

Because Yongnae was accustomed to such stenches, he usually took most unpleasant smells in stride, but this time was different.

The moment he caught the scent, a disgusting stench—one he would never be able to forget for the rest of his life—pierced into Yongnae’s nose. They say the human sense of smell quickly adapts to an odor, but that was not the case for this stench. The smell was so foul that it could make a fainted person snap their eyes open.

Make a fainted person open their eyes?

“…Ah.”

That was it. Yongnae, who had been unconscious, opened his eyes while scowling deeply. As soon as he opened them, the first thing that caught his vision was green. To be precise, a dark turquoise floor. And next to it, some sort of dark red lump.

“Ah…”

His temples throbbed and he felt dizzy. He wanted to touch that area to see if a bump had formed, but he could not move his hands.

And at that stifling realization, Yongnae’s consciousness began to fully return.

Blink, blink.

A fluorescent light was on in the dim space, but perhaps because his head was swimming, he could not focus his vision immediately.

Blink, blink again. As he applied strength to his eyes to try and pull himself together, his field of vision gradually sharpened.

“Ah…?”

However, Yongnae, who was blinking slowly, stared for a long time at what that dark red lump right in front of him was.

Swish— swish—

And finally, when his 0.9 vision in both eyes perfectly recognized what that thing was,

“Ah…!”

Yongnae let out a death-cry of a scream and his body shuddered violently.

Swish— thud.

It was a corpse. A corpse drenched in blood.

“Euaaa—!”

Yongnae screamed and instinctively tried to move away from the corpse. However, his body did not push back as he intended. It was because his arms and feet were folded back and bound.

Extreme terror made Yongnae’s head spin, as if someone had poured an entire bottle of perfume directly into his nose. Yongnae screamed frantically and tried moving his body this way and that, but no matter how hard he tried, the restraints showed no sign of loosening.

“You’re awake?”

Then, at the voice heard suddenly, Yongnae’s head turned rapidly toward it.

“Why on earth is a Jeollabuk-do civil servant hanging around with these drug-addict bastards?”

The swishing sound from a moment ago must have been the sharpening of an axe blade, as he locked eyes head-on with the fellow who was picking himself up while holding an axe with a gleaming edge. The fellow was holding Yongnae’s civil servant ID in his other hand, and he let out a hollow laugh as if the “Jeollabuk-do Provincial Office” clearly written there was absurd.

“How exactly did you find me? Truly annoying…”

The focus of his eyes, which seemed off-kilter as if he were not sane, gave the fellow an even greater sense of incongruity.

“You know, the moment I saw that bald bastard?”

“…!”

“I thought to myself, this will be the last time for this hobby.”

In the spot the fellow pointed to with the hand holding the axe, the bald man, who had become a bloody mess similar to the blood-drenched corpse, was collapsed. And next to him lay a hammer, which appeared to be the tool that had made the bald man that way, abandoned with its handle broken.

How did Lee Suji end up like that? The last thing Yongnae remembered was being hit on the head with a glass cup by the fellow. So, Lee Suji likely became that way because he had come to get Yongnae when the person who went in didn’t come out for a long time, and he must have fought a bloody battle with the fellow.

To think the hammer broke. Is Lee Suji dead? Is he alive? Seeing as he held a rank in the organization, he seemed like he would be quite good at fighting, but to think the fellow was strong enough to take down someone like Lee Suji. The fear of the fellow grew even greater.

And who was the corpse in front of him? This stench piercing his nose was the hydrogen sulfide gas and ammonia gas released as decomposition began. However, seeing as the degree wasn’t severe, it seemed not much time had passed since the death. At least a day. Or a few hours.

This killer bastard has the confidence that he won’t be caught by the police. That is why he boldly killed another person even while the police were swarming the surrounding area, isn’t it? He was so full of confidence, yet the organization and Yongnae himself had tried to ruin that, so it was clear he was beyond furious. He would kill Yongnae immediately. Since the hammer was broken, he intended to kill him with the axe.

“The first time I committed a murder, it was one of these drug-addict bastards.”

However, contrary to the thought that the fellow might strike him immediately, he opened his mouth as if reminiscing while swinging the axe back and forth.

“Well, that fucking bastard said he wouldn’t sell me drugs anymore.”

“…”

“Something about setting conditions for a business he’s doing in Korea with my father? About not selling drugs to me.”

“…”

“Even though I offered more money, he said he wouldn’t sell, and at that moment, my eyes just flipped. Without drugs, I…! These fucking bastards!”

Looking at the way he acts, he seems like he would have been twisted even before doing drugs.

“But right there, a hammer happened to be nearby.”

“…”

“When I came to my senses, I was fucking beating that bastard down with the hammer.”

“…”

“Fuck, but this feels even better than drugs?”

The fellow snickered while his body trembled as if he were mimicking an orgasm. That appearance was extremely bizarre. The actors who mimicked madmen in movies were truly just acting. This fellow was the real madman.

“Hehe— but you’re actually a bit of a waste.”

“…”

“Among the bastards I pound, you’re the best.”

What? Bastards he pounds? Yongnae’s eyes shook violently. He was already terrified enough to have chills running down his spine at the sight of the fellow snickering like a madman, but what did that mean?

Pounding? Did it mean he was going to rape him? Did it mean he would rape and then kill him? But there had been no mention anywhere that there were signs of rape on the corpses.

Then what, what did he mean by pounding…

He had developed a taste for murder and felt more of a sense of achievement in catching men, who were relatively stronger, than women.

‘Without drugs, I…!’

‘Among the bastards I pound, you’re the best.’

Ha— that was it. The fellow was impotent.

Originally, he had resolved that urge through drugs, but when that became impossible, he lost it and struck the first victim with a hammer. But he had felt excitement from that, and the horrific serial murders had begun.

Among the things Professor Jeon said on TV when profiling the culprit, there was something wrong. The profiling that said he had developed a taste for the hand-feel of swinging a hammer and thus killed only men who were physically healthier than women. That was wrong. This fellow was gay. That was why every time he used a hammer on another man, he felt the same pleasure as having sex.

He wasn’t mimicking an orgasm; he truly felt it.

The man approached while holding the axe. To strike him with that. No, he was approaching to rape him with that.

He hated it.

“…No.”

“It’s my first time hitting a living thing with an axe, so it might hurt a bit.”

Being raped was more horrific than dying. The fact that it would be known later that he had been raped was more horrific than dying.

To a man…

He hated the thought of his death being known to the man in that way even more. Yongnae shouted with the loudest voice he had ever produced in his life. Whether from some unknown strength, his bound body also pushed his upper torso up and moved backward.

“No…!”

However, as if Yongnae’s voice could not even be heard, the fellow began to approach Yongnae relentlessly while gripping the axe. As if to enjoy this moment which could be his final murder, his eyes, which had rolled back, were filled with ecstasy.

Fuck—

Profanity burst from the mouth of Yongnae, who had never uttered a curse in his entire life. The situation where he hadn’t even fainted now, even though he had fainted at the sight of a pistol, and the resentment toward the man who hadn’t shown his face until the moment of his death, enveloped Yongnae. Because of whom had he ended up in this situation…

Just once.

At the axe casting a shadow over his head, Yongnae’s eyes squeezed shut. He tried to recall the man’s face, which had surfaced every time he closed his eyes, one last time, but perhaps the unpleasant fear was too severe, for the man’s face was not drawn even when he shut his eyes tight.

Please, just once, if only he could see that face one more time.

Creeak, bang—!

And like a lie.

“Almost late—.”

The man’s voice was heard.