Chapter 88: Chapter 87

There was no time to question why Go Young-hoon suddenly appeared or how Choi Gang-hu noticed his arrival.

The characteristic ‘Sanctuary’ is activated.

As soon as he sensed the ominous atmosphere, Ryu Seo-ha deployed his characteristic. The narrow range of the elongated safe zone first embraced and protected Ryu Jeong-ah.@@novelbin@@

Then, like a small waterfall, it expanded its range, flowing down to the hotel entrance 17 floors below. Ryu Seo-ha locked eyes with Choi Gang-hu, who had raised his head, and threw himself through the broken glass window.

“Seo-ha!”

“What are you doing…!”

Screams of shock erupted from behind. Jung Woo-bin grabbed his wrist with a surprised expression. Ryu Seo-ha slightly expanded the range of [Sanctuary] around his arm to shake off that force and leaped down.

He could clearly feel the earth’s force pulling his body downward. The dizzying sensation grew stronger as the ground approached. Ryu Seo-ha bit his lip hard as he stared intently at the landing point, despite the difficulty of keeping his eyes open in the biting wind.

Choi Gang-hu, having caught his long-sought target, would not hesitate to kill immediately. But there were too many eyes here. He couldn’t let him expose criminal acts in broad daylight.

The debuff ‘Position Shift’ is applied to the designated target (the caster himself).

As soon as he applied the debuff to himself, the sensation of falling from a height quickly subsided. The rapidly increasing kinetic energy was instantly dissipated. The moment his shoe soles touched the asphalt ground,

“Aaaaargh!”

Go Young-hoon’s scream echoed loudly. It was because Choi Gang-hu, realizing that Ryu Seo-ha was about to intervene, mercilessly tore off one of his arms by grabbing his shoulder before he could be stopped.

“Mr. Ryu Seo-ha.”

Choi Gang-hu, who had carelessly thrown away the man’s arm, slowly turned his head while gripping the neck of Go Young-hoon, who was glaring at him with bloodshot eyes. He stepped down from the crumpled hood onto the ground.

Then, with a sizzling sound like meat being grilled, a foul smell vibrated. It was the burning smell he had occasionally encountered when burning corpses in the quarantine zone. Choi Gang-hu had cauterized the man’s wound with a flame skill.

It was an action that showed his intention not to kill him easily, but to inflict even more excruciating pain. After pushing away the car soaked in red blood with his foot to secure space, he lifted Go Young-hoon high.

“This, how would you like me to handle it?”

Every time Choi Gang-hu shook Go Young-hoon’s body as if holding a water bottle, the blood on him dripped onto the asphalt like overflowing water. It was a very grotesque scene.

“Not just the kidnapping incident, but all the tyranny he’s committed so far, I want to pay it all back without missing a single thing.”

Choi Gang-hu tilted his head crookedly as if asking him to tell everything this man had done, how cruelly he had acted. It looked like he was about to put on a cruel dismemberment show publicly.

“Seo-ha!”

Bang!

At that moment, a familiar voice was heard along with the sound of something bouncing off violently. Turning his head, he saw Jung Woo-bin floating in the air. Quickly regaining his posture and landing on the ground, he glared at Choi Gang-hu.

“How dare you try to touch him.”

Choi Gang-hu, receiving the fiery gaze, muttered in a frosty voice. Looking at Jung Woo-bin, who was getting into a fighting stance as if about to fight, with a look of ridicule, he suddenly shifted his gaze to Go Young-hoon.

It was because of the giggling laughter that was heard, inappropriate for the situation. Having one arm torn off and his neck gripped by the cruel opponent who did it, yet he could still laugh. He certainly wasn’t normal either.

“As expected, you’re impressive. Worthy of being the heir to the great Gangseong Group.”

Go Young-hoon, mumbling in a strained voice as if his Adam’s apple was pressed, waved his remaining arm as if clapping. Ryu Seo-ha, watching the rapidly unfolding situation, furrowed his brow.

The man’s excessively relaxed attitude, despite being clearly cornered, was unsettling. It was an appearance that couldn’t be shown without having something to rely on. His sudden appearance was suspicious from the start.

“What is this nonsense?”

Just as he was about to step forward again to sort out the situation, to make matters worse, Choi Junwan appeared.

“With important guests present, causing such an absurd commotion. How will you face Father after this?”

Looking around the ruined hotel entrance, he frowned as if disgusted by the bloody scene.

“Especially against the diplomat I invited.”

Diplomat? Turning around at this nonsensical statement, even Choi Gang-hu, who was gripping Go Young-hoon’s neck, could be seen narrowing his brows.

“Are you alright, Ambassador?”

To Choi Junwan’s polite inquiry, Go Young-hoon didn’t answer but only shrugged the shoulder where his arm had been torn off. Suddenly, the navy blue license plate of the vehicle visible beyond the man’s heel caught his eye.

The unfamiliar format of characters reading ‘Diplomatic 054-001’ in white proved that the car belonged to a foreign diplomatic mission in Korea, specifically an embassy. It was a perplexing situation.

“Ambassador? This bastard?”

Choi Gang-hu asked back, shaking the man violently from side to side as if in disbelief. The fact that his neck didn’t break despite such treatment showed how sturdy the body of a physical hunter truly was.

“Yes. He’s the Ambassador of El Salvador to Korea. Release him at once.”

The Republic of El Salvador. It was a country famous for its unceasing allegations of corruption in politics and business, and its seriously high crime rate even before the Great Cataclysm. It was also a country that the Cult often exploited along with Honduras and Venezuela in the original work.

“Since when?”

Choi Gang-hu asked again with an expression that showed not the slightest intention of releasing the man.

“A little less than a month?”

The answer came from Go Young-hoon. Ryu Seo-ha, who had been rolling his eyes while being highly wary of the man, bit the inside of his cheek. It was because he realized why Go Young-hoon, a wanted criminal, was so confident.

Diplomatic immunity. According to the Vienna Convention, current diplomats are exempt from the criminal jurisdiction of the host country. Although they can be punished after returning to their home country, it’s essentially close to immunity from arrest.

Was this the benefit the Cult had guaranteed him? But it didn’t make sense. He gave up all that wealth to become a diplomat of a country with terrible public safety? No matter how you looked at it, it was an absurdly irrational choice.

“You need to say something that makes sense.”

Choi Gang-hu, narrowing his eyes, threw Go Young-hoon to the ground, shaking his head as if it was nonsense while the man grinned. With a groan, Go Young-hoon fell face down, and the hard asphalt cracked beneath his body.

The change in the man’s status didn’t fit chronologically and was absurd situationally. Everything was full of strange points. It felt like hearing the criticism of original work readers pointing out the lack of plausibility.

“The arrest warrant has already been lifted.”

Go Young-hoon, standing up while supporting himself on the broken road, spoke hatefully with a sneer on his lips. Suddenly, the information from the documents seen at the emergency board meeting came to mind – that the nationality of the representative of the investment company that acquired YH Global was El Salvador.

It meant that there was a high probability that the Cult was behind the foreign private equity fund that attempted a hostile M&A against Gangseong Trading. Go Young-hoon, who had been under the protection of the Cult, had essentially never given up his own assets.

But why? What was the reason for acting as the Cult’s pawn, even risking the danger of being chased by the police? He often showed antipathy towards chaebols, but… Come to think of it, did he particularly dislike the Gangseong Group?

“You’ve appeared before me prepared to be expelled from our country, right?”

For now, cutting off his thoughts, Ryu Seo-ha mentioned forced repatriation while looking directly at Go Young-hoon with a calm expression.

“Seo-ha, unfortunately, that’s not possible.”

Unexpectedly, it was Choi Junwan who expressed a negative opinion to those words.

“El Salvador is a country that possesses key resources necessary for semiconductor-magic compatibility technology. It means that Mr. Go Young-hoon has become an important figure for us in terms of industrial cooperation.”

He bowed his head towards the one-armed gangster after making a very calculated statement, as if he had never tried to win Ryu Seo-ha’s favor.

“As the inviter, I am deeply sorry, Ambassador. We will cover the medical expenses. We will also strive for the punishment of the assailant.”

It was an absurd situation where the man who was the assailant until just recently had suddenly become the victim.

“Urgh, everyone seems to have a big misunderstanding. I boarded that ship to save our employee.”

Go Young-hoon’s nonsensical addition was also quite a sight. He wanted to pull the man into the [Sanctuary] range and pour all kinds of debuffs on him. But he couldn’t do that. It wasn’t just because there were many watching eyes.

He didn’t know where the Cult’s apostles might be lurking around. He had to conserve his magic power as much as possible in preparation for a combat situation. Even though Choi Gang-hu was beside him, his stat increase rate had significantly slowed down.

“Have you gotten prettier in the meantime? Looks like you’re living well?”

As if mocking Ryu Seo-ha’s tension, Go Young-hoon ran his eyes over his body with a very sticky gaze.

“What bullshit.”

Jung Woo-bin, who had been quiet for a while, suddenly interjected with an unfamiliar curse and pushed the man’s body back forcefully.

“A criminal bastard dares to look at who?”

If he hadn’t done that, Choi Gang-hu might have cut off Go Young-hoon’s remaining arm. His coldly sunken eyes were staring fixedly in that direction.

What on earth was this all about? It was dizzying to watch the battle of wills among these men – a stupid one, a strange one, an uncomfortable one, and a crazy one – all gathered as a set.

Ryu Seo-ha moved slowly to stand next to Choi Gang-hu. Ridiculously, he felt a faint sense of relief at the touch of the arm naturally wrapping around his waist.