Chapter 99: Advance Notice of a Storm #4
"What are you talking about? I didn’t kill anyone. I’m innocent and was wrongfully locked up in prison.”
“What?”
"Did you think I was such a monster? If so, you are mistaken.”
Kang-suk stared at Park Sung-yul with an absurd expression. If he was a rookie then he would be confused if he encountered such an opponent, and wouldn’t be able to interrogate him properly. But now he was a detective who caught many horrible criminals. He didn’t show any panic. If he did then he would be playing right into Park Sung-yul’s hands.
Kang-suk instantly returned to his usual calm.
"Is that so? By the way, have you eaten lunch yet?”
Park Sung-yul’s mouth twitched at the calm answer.
“If I knew you were coming so late then I would’ve eaten beforehand.”
"You didn’t eat while you were waiting? Would you like jajangmyeon to be delivered? Oh, they don’t deliver here. In other words, I’ll have to ask the kitchen. Is ramyun okay?”
“Yes. It is good.”
"Then some ramyun please. Bring a pot with lots of water. There should be enough for three to five people.”
Kang-suk called the guards and asked them to boil ramyun noodles. After 10 minutes, three pots were delivered to the visitation room.
"What do you know? This ramyun is exactly to my tastes."
“It seems like it.”
Park Sung-yul was hungry and isntantly emptied the pot full of noodles. Kang-suk asked as he ate the food,
"Since you are so far away, I guess you don’t have many people visiting?”
“Even if I was on land, no one would come.”
"Is that so? Weren’t you close to the daughter of your old boarding house landlord?”
"I’m sorry but I don’t remember since it was so long ago.”
“Well. I understand. At any rate, tell me if you want more. I’ll have them boil extra.”
“It is okay, I’m full.”
Since then, the detective and criminal talked like they were old friends. Kang-suk didn’t ask anymore about Park Sung-yul’s letter and soon, the one hour of visitation time was over. Kang-suk got up and asked,
“Is there anything else to talk about?”
"I had a great time meeting a person after a while. See you next time.”
"Next time? Yes. Well, I’ll see what happens first.”
"Yes Detective, take care.”
Hyun-ho, who was sitting at the table next to Kang-suk, also got up and gave a thumbs up. It meant that Kang-suk was as good of an interrogator as he said beforehand.
Cho Kang-suk sighed slowly. This really didn’t suit him.
@
After the interrogation, the detective and investigator talked about it in the waiting room.
"Is it truly the boarding house?”
"I think it is obvious from his reaction. By the way, your brain is very good.”
"Don’t even say it.”
The two men had decided in advance what direction to take the conversation, based on Park Sung-yul’s answer.
Kang-suk was well aware of what he was lacking. Therefore, he left the thinking to Joo Hyun-ho. After reading the letter from Park Sung-yul, Hyun-ho had investigated everything about him. In particular, he looked for any people who went missing in the vicinity of Park Sung-yul.
The one who caught Joo Hyun-ho’s attention was the daughter of the landlord of a boarding house where Park Sung-yul stayed for a while. Hyun-ho read her profile and muttered,
"Her age at the time of her disappearance is consistent. It was found that she had an argument with Park Sung-yul a few days before she went missing.”
"Then why was the incident buried when Park Sung-yul was arrested?”
"There was only circumstantial evidence, no physical ones. Furthermore, he had a decisive alibi.”
At the time she went missing, Park Sung-yul was in China.
"Hrmm..."
"Anyway, I requested a DNA test so we should figure out the correct identity in a few days.”
"This makes it more likely that Park Sung-yul’s words are true. But why did he suddenly change his words?”
"I’m not sure what Park Sung-yul is thinking. Besides, I think he also wanted to slip into the conversation that he killed the landlord’s daughter.”
Kang-suk quietly groaned.
“Ahem...”
A criminal had confessed his sins in a letter. He threw clues one by one like puzzle pieces.
"Maybe Park Sung-yul is enjoying playing with the police. In addition, the first puzzle was based on things about him. It feels like he gave us the easiest puzzle first.”
“Damn. So now we have to wait until he throws us another puzzle?”
“There are 12 people left...”
"It will never end this way.”
However, he didn’t want to give up. He didn’t want the 12 murders committed by Park Sung-yul to forever remain as hidden cases. Kang-suk discovered that Hyun-ho was making a strange expression, meaning that he had a secret plan.
"What are you thinking?”
Hyun-ho licked his lips and his eyes lit up. It looked like he was enjoying the puzzle made by Park Sung-yul.
"Park Sung-yul wants to play with us. Sunbae, do you know how to unconditionally win in poker?”
“Well. Don’t you win if you can read your opponent’s face?”
“...There is such a thing. Well, there is something simpler. There should be a spy to tell you the opponent’s hand.”
Cho Kang-suk realized what Joo Hyun-ho wanted: It was to have a spy monitor Park Sung-yul’s movements in the Blue Dragon Prison. Kang-suk folded his arms and frowned.
"It is a little bit like cheating but... The method isn’t bad. The problem is finding someone to spy on Park Sung-yul in Blue Dragon Prison.
It was best to use a prisoner as a source of intelligence. The guards were considered public enemies by the monitored and controlled prisoners. So there was a strange sense of fellowship and they often exchanged stories in secret.
In other prisons, there were people imprisoned for three to six months for misdemeanor crimes such as theft. Most of them could be used as sources of information. If they were discovered as a spy then their lives could be in danger. In the end, the ones who would be stuck in jail for a long time wouldn’t act as spies.
“...I think it will be fine if Hyung approaches them with the offer of reducing their sentence.”
Kang-suk spoke in a strong tone.
"Absolutely not!”
"Then do you have a good idea?”
"If we can’t get it from the inside, can’t we get it from the outside?”
In other words, imprison someone in Blue Dragon Prison who would act as their spy.
“Oh, that is good. It’s definitely possible to do that if we get the permission of the warden. Ah right, no police. Criminals have a really sensitive smell towards the police.”
"If they are discovered as a spy then they might be lynched...”
First of all, it needed to be a person who wouldn’t be unnatural in prison. In addition, in order to become familiar with other criminals, they needed a special crime that would grab attention.
"Someone who looks like a criminal, has courage, and also has strength... I think a masked superhero would be needed to satisfy all the conditions.”
“Kuoong... The right person...”
Kang-suk desperately thought about who could fit into the Blue Dragon Prison.
At that moment, someone popped into his mind.
“Ah!”
@
“Ooof...!”
Tae-hyuk was nauseous as he entered the room. A dark aura of death was pouring out from it. There was no need to activate the Spying skill. As he walked to the center, something stuck to his shoes. When he checked his foot, he saw something like crushed meat.
This was one of the two secret rooms in the basement of the hospital. The place where the relics of the Japanese military would be somewhere that hadn’t been touched for decades. However, this place showed evidence of being frequented by somebody.
“...The result is a boom.”
He felt a cold chill like he was in a freezer. Tae-hyuk looked at the plastic bags piled up in the middle of the room. There was something small in them. He brought his hand to a bag to see what it was.
At that moment, a strange illusion emerged in front of Tae-hyuk’s eyes.
"Heok!"
It was the same as when he entered the bathroom that the hippo had killed in. However, unlike then, he didn’t see anybody being killed. Instead, he heard a conversation.
-I need a liver.The shape can’t be broken.
-You don’t want finely chopped pieces?
-Yes, that’s right.
-Of course, all organs are extracted as they are.You don’t have to be worry.If you wish then we can do a wholesale trade.
-I would like to do it if the price is worth it.Is 10 possible?
“......”
Tae-hyuk was at a loss for words. He figured out what they were trading. It was the organs of the aborted fetuses.
The words of Jung Eui-do momentarily popped into his head.
-Our clinic does abortions up to 36 months.
This was the reason. Tae-hyuk had seen a similar sight not long ago. T Medical Centre had kidnapped children and extracted their organs for transplant surgery. However, the purpose of the ones buying the fetuses here...
"Sheesh, I can’t unsee this.”
The bags were filled with the bodies of those who weren’t born. They were piled up in a frozen warehouse like pig and cattle meat. Tae-hyuk captured it all on camera. Once this was revealed, the media would become heated up for a while.
Tae-hyuk left the room and pulled out the blueprint in his back pocket. In the end, the last remaining place was definitely where the Japanese army hid the treasure map.
"I know why it went unnoticed for decades.”
The entrance was the bottom of an old well in the backyard. There was a passage to enter from the basement, but it seemed to have been covered over with concrete when a boiler room was made. In the end, it was either go down the well, or smash the concrete floor with a pickaxe.
It was one of the reasons why he left it for last.
"Everybody in the building would come running if I use a pickaxe. I have to use the well.”
Tae-hyuk walked towards the backyard.
@
The well wasn’t difficult to find. It hadn’t been used for a long time so there was a rusty chain around it. Weeds were growing around it. Anyone who didn’t know there was a well here would mistake it for someone’s grave.
Tae-hyuk equipped the iron pipe using the Violence skill and struck the chain surrounding the well.
Kaaang!
It was rusty so the chain was removed more easily than he thought.
"Then let’s go down.”
Whether it was completely dry or filled with water, the depths of the well looked like an abyss. Tae-hyuk held a flashlight in his mouth and climbed down. After 10 meters, he reached the bottom.
"Isn’t it okay if I am a little noisy at this depth?”
He placed the iron pipe between the pipes and put strength into it. The stones cracked and the well wall collapsed. The result was a passage leading somewhere. Tae-hyuk widened the hole so that his body could fit through and entered.
“Damn. Rat pellets...”
Tae-hyuk rubbed the foreign matter on his hands against the wall and straightened his body. There was a small space that was only one pyeong large. Several wooden boxes were stacked.
“Well. These are canned foods."
It wasn’t the one pull type that appeared these days, but cans that required a special opener.
"Bingo. This is a shelter created by the Japanese.”
Tae-hyuk spat out some dust and started to search the room.
“I-I found it!”
It was a small room, so he could easily find what he was looking for. Tae-hyuk looked at the document with joy.
“Ohuhu... I imagined something like a rolled parchment paper... Isn’t this a plain file folder?”
It was a little yellow, which wasn’t surprising, but the state of preservation wasn’t bad. Tae-hyuk quietly started to read it. It was written in Japanese so he had to get help from a translation application installed on his smartphone.
“...We have decided to keep all the remaining war funds in a designated place... The general manager is Yamashita Toshiro...”
Tae-hyuk’s hands trembled.
"T-This is Yamashita’s gold!”
During a building renovation, an astronomical amount of gold was found. Now it was sleeping in a place where no one could touch it. He held the location where it was hidden.
Tae-hyuk’s fingers started shaking.
“Aha, ahahaha!”
He burst out laughing. A few billion. There was treasure worth billions of won, and it would soon enter his hands.
"It looks like I can build a castle for my sister’s wedding gift, not just buy her a house.”
But this wasn’t the end. Everything he imagined could become possible. It wasn’t just changing his future. With this, he could have a completely new life. It wouldn’t be too difficult to dispose of it using the Phantom’s ability.
"Now, where is the treasure actually hidden?”
Tae-hyuk glanced at the map in the documents, but something was wrong. It was the first time he saw it, but something was familiar.
“...This is the Blue Dragon?”
Tae-hyuk shouted out loud. The place on the map was the Blue Dragon Prison where he would be imprisoned in the future.
"I see. So that’s what happened.”
Tae-hyuk realized why Yamashita’s gold was only discovered two years later. It was a ruin that no one had entered for decades before the Blue Dragon Prison was built. Two years later, the Blue Dragon Prison started a massive expansion. It was during the construction that Yamashita’s gold was found.
Tae-hyuk lived in Blue Dragon Prison for 10 years. The expansion work continued even when Tae-hyuk was imprisoned, so he definitely remembered where it was.
"In the end, I need to go back to where I died to get the gold.”
Tae-hyuk quietly smirked.