A Genius Speaks with Money

Chapter 93: The Hidden Architect (3)

Jeong Jin-woo sensed it intuitively.

That something unusual had happened.

I was still as calm as usual, but I was shaking somewhere unlike my usual self.

Elina moved her steps first.

Her back, as she walked side-by-side with Samir, still looked cheerful.

The tips of my fingers trembled minutely.

No matter how much I tried to maintain my composure, the scene I had just seen would not leave my head.

Jeong Jin-woo opened his mouth carefully, but I shook my head briefly.

It was a signal not to speak.

Jeong Jin-woo’s brow narrowed for the first time.I moved my steps calmly and got into the vehicle.

After giving a final greeting to Samir, the car they were riding in departed.

The engine sound echoed softly, and silence flowed.

Jeong Jin-woo stared outside the window without a word.

After leaving the residence, the vehicle ran smoothly along the road and headed toward the airport.

The driver sitting in the front seat merely drove quietly.

Jeong Jin-woo, sitting in the passenger seat, fell into thought while lightly clasping his hands.

I and Moon Jong-beom, sitting in the back seat, were each lost in our own thoughts.

The vehicle was still quiet.

Jeong Jin-woo twitched one eyebrow.

The intersection the vehicle passed a moment ago.

If heading toward the airport, it should have headed to the left from there.

However, the vehicle naturally turned its direction to the right.

An ordinary person would not have perceived it at all.

However, Jeong Jin-woo was different.

He had been memorizing the way all along while coming to this place.

It was an ability he possessed thanks to training like a habit.

He closed his eyes and then opened them slowly.

He lowered his gaze very carefully.

A black leather case is hidden at his ankle.

A small dagger was inside it.

‘It would be simple to slit that fellow's throat right now.’

Jeong Jin-woo calculated in his mind.

However, his pupils soon shook again.

He sensed it instinctively.

Even though the air conditioner was on, the driver was sweating continuously.

Seeing that he was wearing clothes larger than his frame, there was a possibility that a self-destruction device was hidden.

Or it could have been made to explode automatically if it left a certain radius.

Having carried out numerous fields and operations, he knew this type of trap well.

‘Even if I kill him now, there is a high possibility the three of us will take the path to the afterlife together.’

Jeong Jin-woo turned back and looked at me sitting in the back seat as if nothing were wrong and yawned.

Moon Jong-beom did not know the reason and soon withdrew his interest, but I realized by intuition that danger was approaching.

To survive, one must pretend not to know right now.

That was the best one could do now.

The car running on the road soon sped toward a place full of desert heat.

I, sitting in the back seat, was still looking out the window.

In the landscape where sand dust fluttered, it was not the way to the airport no matter who looked.

The surroundings became increasingly unfamiliar.

The car, which was weaving in and out among buildings on the verge of collapsing, soon entered a narrow alleyway.

The asphalt changed to an old cement floor.

Moon Jong-beom reacted as if he had only now noticed.

“Uh? Wait a moment. It is not this way….”

He spoke as if flustered while looking at me with a heavily flushed face.

“Representative, it is not the airport… this is a place I am seeing for the first time. Something is strange.”

I did not answer.

Instead, I looked straight ahead.

The driver wore a madness-filled smile.

Jeong Jin-woo’s expression hardened.

He scanned the driver's seat and the instrument panel with a sharp gaze.

It had already exceeded 100km/h.

Even if the brakes were stepped on, it was already too late.

“Everyone, hold the seatbelt tight!”

I looked at Moon Jong-beom and tightened my seatbelt.

He was the same.

Jeong Jin-woo let out a short breath.

He unfastened his seatbelt without a single error and took out the knife hidden at his ankle.

Swish.

Then, the blade cut through the air like lightning and crossed the driver's neck.

Blood splattered like a fountain and stained the windshield red.

The driver hunched forward while clutching his neck without being able to make a single sound.

In that process, Jeong Jin-woo did not have a second of hesitation.

Regardless of the bloodstains covering the back of his neck, he climbed on top of his body in one breath and unfastened the seatbelt as if cutting it.

He gritted his teeth and shouted one word.

“Hold on tight!”

He pulled the parking brake strongly.

With the sound of tires scraping the ground, the vehicle body twisted here and there as if losing balance while failing to control its speed.

In an instant, he kicked open the driver's seat door with one hand.

And he threw his body with all his might while holding the man and bounced.

Jeong Jin-woo’s figure, flying while rotating, entered my sight in slow motion.

They, who were rolling over and over, were not clearly seen as they were mixed with dirt dust.

I raised my voice toward him.

“…Jeong Jin-woo!”

In vain to my shout, the vehicle struck the wall just like that.

KABOOM!

At the same time as the collision, the engine room was crushed and an eerie sound of rupture as if steel were being mangled burst out.

The vehicle body slumped with its front heavily crumpled, and huge sparks began to fly from under the hood.

The instantaneous shock enveloped the interior.

My head was thrown back, and I felt a crushing sensation in my chest as if my breath were being cut off.

Moon Jong-beom slumped while bleeding red blood from the seat next to me.

The seatbelt was barely holding his body while enduring.

My consciousness gradually became faint.

A high-frequency sound, whether it was tinnitus or an explosion, rang continuously in my ears.

Shapeless lights blinked, and fragments broke the windows and scattered.

Everything collapsed in an instant.

It was as if the world had collapsed.

“Ugh….”

I tried to barely pull my senses together within my blurred vision.

A fishy taste kept rising in my mouth.

I barely opened my two eyes.

My vision was still blurred, and it was distant as if an opaque plastic wrap were placed over my eyes.

As if trying to catch my consciousness, I gritted my teeth and lifted my head.

A pain as if being crushed was felt in the chest area.

Seeing that it was felt every time I let out a breath, it seems a rib was likely broken.

‘I cannot die here.’

The interior of the vehicle was already filled with smoke as flames rose.

The flames that started from the engine room soon swallowed the driver's seat.

The burning smell was mixed with blood, and it was no different from hell.

I unfastened the seatbelt with trembling hands.

The metal buckle fell with a click.

I leaned my upper body excessively and grabbed the door handle.

Fortunately, the door opened with a screeching sound.

I rolled my body just like that and fell out of the car.

I barely endured the pain while rolling on the floor.

Flesh was peeled off from my palms and elbows.

However, I did not stop.

“Ugh. Moon… Jong-beom.”

Every time the acrid smoke entered my lungs, a cough came out, but I repeated the same words.

However, an answer was not heard.

Moon Jong-beom was hanging his blood-smeared face while fainted.

His consciousness seemed to be cut off, and his body was hanging from the seatbelt.

I crawled doggedly and headed to the other side of the door.

Blood flowed from one of my legs.

My torn side was very painful, but I gritted my teeth and moved my body.

I crawled while placing my two arms on the ground.

Coarse sand and glass fragments were stuck in my fingertips.

At that moment, the wind whipped up.

Flames rose riding that wind.

The fire blazed in an instant and swallowed the vehicle.

Something exploded and a pillar of fire rose above the vehicle body.

A pain as if my skin were cooking rushed in just by going near that heat.

“…Damn it!”

I pulled the door handle of the seat where Moon Jong-beom was.

However, for some reason, it had no intention of moving.

Three times, four times.

Even though I pulled for dear life, the door did not budge.

“Please… open!”

I struck the door with my fist.

This time, I struck my body hard against it.

A shock was applied to my shoulder and my ribs screamed again, but the door was still closed.

My breath became ragged.

My vision began to be stained red gradually.

In front of my eyes, Moon Jong-beom’s face was slowly buried in the smoke.

It was then.

A stone was in my sight.

I grabbed it without hesitation.

I stood up holding it without even having the leisure to gauge the weight with my bleeding hands.

And I struck the car window with all the strength I had.

Once.

Twice.

Only at the third strike did the reinforced glass break and split like a spider web.

I did not hesitate and put my hand through the window gap and opened the door from the inside.

Only then was the broken lock released, and the door opened with a screeching sound.

The flames had already swallowed the back seat, and the entire vehicle began to be stained like a box on fire.

I pushed my hand inside.

As my arm touched the seat that had melted in the flames, a pain as if cooking was transmitted just like that.

I did not let out a single groan.

“Jong-beom… please wake up! Let us go together!”

Moon Jong-beom’s body slid down like a limp doll.

His left arm was bent unnaturally, and his fingers were trembling from the shock of dislocation.

“Ugh… ugh.”

The moment I saw him let out a faint groan, my gaze flashed.

‘He is alive!’

That one fact seemed to blow away all of my pain.

If Moon Jong-beom were to die, I would have to live a prison-like life due to guilt for the rest of my life.

I hugged Moon Jong-beom’s upper body and barely dragged him out of the car.

At that moment, another explosion echoed from inside the car, and flames followed as if chasing behind.

The bodies of the two of us rolled on the floor and barely widened the distance.

Behind us, the vehicle body, which had become a fireball, blazed while growling.

My whole body was a wreck.

Flesh might have fallen off.

I could no longer feel any sensation in my limbs.

It was painful due to the pain deep into my internal organs.

However, I was alive.

And Moon Jong-beom was also alive.

That was enough.

I, who was breathing roughly, checked Moon Jong-beom’s face.

Blood flowed from his forehead, and the corners of his mouth were severely burst and swollen hideously.

While lying on the floor, I reached out my hand and shook Moon Jong-beom’s body.

Then, Moon Jong-beom’s eyelids trembled minutely and then opened little by little, very slowly.

“Repre…sentative?”

A voice that barely flowed from cracked lips.

His gaze, which seemed to have lost focus, was as if he were dreaming.

A gentle smile spread across the corners of my mouth.

“I am glad you are alive!”

At that short word, my heart echoed heavily.

Due to the bursting joy and relief, my emotions were so overwhelmed that even tears felt like a waste.

I reached out my hand toward Moon Jong-beom.

I placed my hand on his chest and felt the pulse that could be felt even if weakly, while letting out a monologue.

“…Thank you.”

My gaze headed toward the sky.

The hot sunlight flickered while showing off that it was still alive.

No sound could be heard in my ears anymore.

Every time I breathed in, my torn lungs were painful.

My eyelids became increasingly heavy.

I looked at Moon Jong-beom’s face for the last time and laughed thinly.

“It is… okay. It is done now.”

And I closed my eyes.

As dust and ash fluttered into the air in the wind, everything felt distant like a dream.

Pain, memory, reality.

All of them disappeared into the wind.