novelraw Chapter 93 : Did you think I’d die easily?
Chapter 93 : Did you think I’d die easily?
Chapter 93: Did you think I’d die easily?
As the boat completely escaped the harbor lights and entered the vast open sea, Han Do-gyeong handed the helm over to his subordinate and walked over to my side.
In a voice laced with a threadlike doubt, he spoke.
“Will that bastard really come?”
“Greed numbs reason. He’ll definitely come.”
Leaving Han Do-gyeong behind, I entered the cabin where Oh Chung-seong and his subordinate were.
“Oh, Section Chief.”
Perhaps because of seasickness, neither of them looked particularly well.
“Until Wang Hai shows up, do not move under any circumstances. Until you see my signal, just breathe and pretend you’re dead.”
Oh Chung-seong nodded with a hardened expression.
I came back out onto the deck. Lee Cheong-ho was staring out at the vast open sea in the darkness.
“You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind.”
“I just hope Xiao Long is safe.”
“That’s something we have to leave to heaven. If things go wrong, don’t report it to the Elder.”
“…….”
“I’m saying this because you could end up being more of a problem than me.”
Unless Lee Cheong-ho had informed Yang Sobo about this operation, he too was ultimately an accomplice. Realizing the meaning behind my words, Lee Cheong-ho’s expression stiffened.
“Still, since his injuries were pretty severe, we should hope he doesn’t come.”
Even as I said it, I couldn’t be certain. Would Wang Hai really abandon the card called Xiao Long and come? That was still something no one could know.
We continued toward the agreed coordinates for about another hour.
All around us was enveloped in pitch-black darkness, with only the distant horizon faintly distinguishable.
No one on the boat spoke a word. Only the rolling sound of the waves and the monotonous engine noise added to the taut tension.
Then, Han Do-gyeong’s subordinate, who had been watching the radar, shouted quietly.
The only person who would install equipment like that on a 20-ton-class fishing boat would be Han Do-gyeong. It looked like secondhand equipment installed for smuggling.
“Something’s coming. It’s approaching fast from the eleven o’clock direction.”
Everyone’s gaze snapped toward that direction at once. In the darkness, the silhouette of another fishing boat racing toward us at full speed came faintly into view.
Their boats cut through the water without hesitation, like starving sharks rushing in after the scent of blood. And there wasn’t just one—there were two.
In an instant, they closed the distance and began sailing side by side with Han Do-gyeong’s fishing boat.
The distance between the decks of the boats was only a few meters. With Wang Hai’s vessels on both sides, we were trapped in the middle.
Wang Hai came out of the wheelhouse and burst into a crazed laugh as he looked at us. Beside him, his subordinates stood bristling with killing intent, armed with axes and steel pipes.
The lights spilling from the boats brightly illuminated the dark sea.
“Bwahahaha! Did you think I’d just let you go? You bastards are dying here. From today on, I’m the sea whale!”
His thunderous roar tore through the night sea. His voice was twisted with hatred and greed.
Han Do-gyeong didn’t respond at all. He merely looked at him with eyes full of contempt, as if staring at an insect.
Soon, Wang Hai’s gaze turned toward me.
“Hey, you insolent little brat!”
The greed flickering dangerously in Wang Hai’s eyes was clearly visible even from afar.
“One hundred thousand dollars? I’ll put that money to very good use! Your little brother won’t even set foot on Taiwan before he becomes fish feed. Don’t feel too bad about it. You’ll be fish feed too.”
His words reeked of avarice. Listening to his crazed curse, I let out a small chuckle.
“If I give you one hundred thousand dollars, will you go back?”
“What?”
“I’m asking if you’ll let us live and go back if I give you one hundred thousand dollars.”
At my question, Wang Hai’s eyes bulged out like saucers.
“I’ll let you and your brother live.”
I picked up the bag beside me and threw it onto Wang Hai’s boat.
Startled, Wang Hai caught the bag. Feeling its heavy weight, a smile crept onto his lips.
He set the bag down on the deck and hurriedly opened it.
But the smile that had filled his face vanished in an instant. Inside were nothing but scraps of paper cut to the size of dollar bills.
After confirming the sight, I sneered at him in Chinese.
“Looking at you now, you’re not a sea whale. You’re just a stupid dogfish that swallowed the bait whole.”
“What did you say? How dare this bastard make fun of me!”
“Thanks, Wang Hai. Thanks to your greed, everything was resolved so easily.”
Having lost all reason at my mockery, Wang Hai roared. His face was flushed bright red with rage.
“Kill them all! Don’t leave a single bastard on that boat alive!”
At Wang Hai’s order, rope-attached grappling hooks were thrown from his boat. It looked like they were trying to pull our boat in.
Bang!
At that moment, a sharp gunshot shattered the silence of the night.
It was a blank round. Oh Chung-seong burst out onto the deck from the cabin, a pistol in his hand.
“Don’t move! This is the KCIA! Drop all your weapons and put your hands on your head!”
At Oh Chung-seong’s warning, Wang Hai instead laughed even louder, like a madman.
“KCIA? What’s the KCIA going to do! This isn’t land where you can run wild! Out here, fists come before the law! On this sea, I’m the king, and I’m the law!”
Mocking Oh Chung-seong’s warning, Wang Hai glared at Han Do-gyeong, who was standing silently beside me, and spoke.
“Han Do-gyeong, you’re finished too. You dragged the KCIA in to catch me? I should’ve thrown you to the sharks a long time ago.”
“Shouldn’t one of us die, Captain Wang?”
“Bwahahahaha! That won’t be me—it’ll be you.”
Oh Chung-seong warned them again.
“Everyone, throw your weapons into the sea and put your hands on your head.”
But Wang Hai only mocked Oh Chung-seong’s warning.
“How many bullets you got in there? Once you use them all, you’ll be torn to pieces. I’ll tear you apart myself.”
Wang Hai shouted once more toward the wheelhouse.
“Ram them straight on!”
“Fire!”
I shouted at the hesitating Oh Chung-seong. His pupils were shaking violently.
The primal fear of killing someone, and the responsibility if he failed. All of it weighed heavily on his trigger finger.
“If you don’t shoot now, we’ll all die, Section Chief!”
At my shout, Oh Chung-seong finally seemed to make up his mind and aimed his pistol at Wang Hai.
Bang! Bang!
Two gunshots rang out in succession, echoing across the night sea.
Red blood burst out of Wang Hai’s chest like a fountain. He stared down at his chest with disbelieving eyes, then collapsed onto the deck.
“Captain!”
At the moment Wang Hai’s subordinates wavered after losing their leader—
From the darkness lurking on all sides, dozens of searchlights lit us up at once, and multiple Coast Guard patrol vessels revealed themselves, forming a massive encirclement.
“All of you, drop your weapons and surrender! If you do not surrender, you will be shot!”
The Coast Guard’s overwhelming presence and cold warning broadcast. Any ordinary smugglers would have given up and dropped to their knees at this moment.
But Wang Hai’s men were different. As if trying to avenge Wang Hai, one man shouted loudly.
“Kill those sons of bitches!”
“For the captain’s revenge!”
Blatantly ignoring the Coast Guard’s warning, they charged toward our boat all at once, wielding axes and steel pipes.
Some threw ropes again, trying to secure our boat, while others tried to leap across the perilous gap between the two vessels.
“Shoot! Shoot them!”
Oh Chung-seong shouted urgently as he pulled the trigger again. Hearing him, his subordinate also began firing toward the opposite side.
The deck instantly turned into pandemonium.
“Aaagh!”
One man who had been trying to jump onto our boat sprayed blood in midair and plunged into the sea.
The Coast Guard broadcast another warning urging surrender, but like moths flying into a flame, they kept charging at us, having already steeled themselves for death.
Dududududu—!
At last, the heavy machine gun mounted on the bow of a Coast Guard vessel spewed fire.
The pitch-black night sea was lit up like daytime by flashes in an instant, and an ear-splitting roar shook everything around us.
Bullets rained down on their boats. Wooden splinters and screams exploded everywhere.
The blinding light of the searchlights, the muzzle flashes of the machine gun, and red blood mixed together, painting a vision of hell.
But they didn’t stop. It was madness that had swallowed even the fear of death.
“Get across! Take at least one more with us when we die!”
A huge Overseas Chinese man with a dragon tattoo, who looked like the second-in-command of Wang Hai’s group, stood at the front and roared.
He crawled across the deck under the hail of bullets and managed to hook a rope onto our boat’s railing.
With him at the lead, the surviving men pulled the rope tight and pressed their boat close to ours, then began crossing over like evil spirits.
“Stop them!”
Han Do-gyeong shouted. His subordinates and Lee Cheong-ho rushed forward, blocking the attackers with steel pipes and clubs.
A desperate close-quarters battle broke out on the narrow deck. The sharp clang of metal colliding with metal, the dull sound of flesh being torn, and the final screams of the dying mixed together.
Lee Cheong-ho moved without a sound. He wrapped his arm around the neck of the nearest man and snapped it, then used the corpse as a shield to block another man’s axe.
It was a hellscape where if you didn’t kill, you were killed. Han Do-gyeong’s subordinates resisted stubbornly with skills honed over years, but the momentum of men charging in prepared to die was truly terrifying.
“You bastard!”
The dragon-tattooed man who had crossed over first. From the start, his target had been me.
He ignored every other fight and ran straight toward me.
“I should’ve killed you the moment I first saw you. Die!”
He charged like a beast, wielding a blood-soaked axe.
I didn’t retreat as I stared straight at him. There had been a time when, after falling under Jeong Tae-soo, I had to fight every single day to survive in the mud.
Back then, if it meant survival, I was willing to become a beast.
His axe plunged straight down toward my head. I twisted my body slightly to dodge and, at the same time, kicked a pile of old nets beside me up into his face.
“Ghk!”
As the man staggered with his vision momentarily blocked, I dove deep into his space.
Then, with the sharp fishing hook I had grabbed earlier from the corner of the deck, I drove it straight into his thigh.
“Aaagh!”
A horrific scream burst from his mouth. As he screamed, his hand reflexively went to his thigh.
I didn’t miss that opening. I twisted the hook out and stabbed down again into his other thigh.
With a dull thud, the hook pierced through his thigh. His eyes widened in disbelief. The axe slipped from his hand and clattered onto the deck.
I quickly picked up the axe. Incomprehensible groans leaked from the man’s mouth.
I looked down at him with emotionless eyes and brought the axe down toward one of his wrists.
“Do you think I’d die easily? At the hands of trash like you?”
Along with a tearing, agonized scream, hot blood splashed up onto my face.
Holding the blood-soaked axe, I looked around the deck, which was still a scene of carnage.
The fight was almost over. Lee Cheong-ho and Han Do-gyeong’s subordinates had already thrown all the men who resisted to the very end into the sea.
One of Han Do-gyeong’s subordinates was groaning with a deep gash in his arm, and another lay collapsed on the deck without moving.
Soon after, with loud engine noise, Coast Guard patrol boats pulled up alongside our vessel.
Ropes were thrown, and uniformed Coast Guard officers jumped onto the deck in perfect order.
And at their head was a man whose face was flushed bright red with rage.
“Oh, Section Chief!”
The man rushed toward Oh Chung-seong as soon as he boarded, as if the blood-soaked deck and scattered corpses didn’t even exist, and roughly grabbed him by the collar.
“What kind of operation is this!”