The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 161

161. An Unexpected Reunion (1)

The Nest, one side of the iron bars in Cell Block 3.

Three days later, the strange moaning sounds had ceased in this place.

Everyone knelt reverently, quietly awaiting their meal.

When the food was served, the prisoners of Cell Block 3 took their trays and respectfully offered them to Jin Jaehee.

“H-Here’s your meal. Haha…”

The serial killer carefully placed the tray in front of her, sweat beading on his forehead.

Jin Jaehee, shrouded in deep shadows, merely lowered her eyes to look at the tray.

Then, she silently began to eat.

The ecosystem of Cell Block 3 had been re-established.

Before the absolute strong, the weak all knelt, and barbaric acts no longer occurred.

Even without the power of her Artifact, Jin Jaehee was a combat prodigy.

Prisoners challenged her to fight several times a day, but each time, she mercilessly subdued them.

After three days, no one dared to challenge her anymore.

Like lionesses prostrating before the male lion who had become king of the pride, everyone lowered their tails and bowed down.

“Tch.”

Jaehee spat out the brick-hard bread and kicked the tray away with her foot.

Then, the serial killer from before quickly rushed over and retrieved her tray.

She looked out of the iron bars, lost in thought.

At the end of the hallway, two guards were chatting.

Her eyes, watching the guards, were filled with anger and blazed fiercely.

‘Which bastard did this? Could Sion be imprisoned like me? If he’s being treated like this too, I don’t care about Mangyeong [a fictional organization or place]. I’ll kill them all. The instigators, the accomplices, all of them… once I get out of these bars. Once I get outside…’

Jin Jaehee’s anger was directed at the executives of Mangyeong, but it was the other prisoners in the same cell block who were trembling in fear.

“Heeeek…!”

“The boss seems to be in a very bad mood.”

“Let’s hurry and clean the floor. The boss hates dirt the most.”

A murderer, a terrorist, and a political prisoner lined up, putting rags on the floor and began to mop.

At that moment, at the end of the hallway beyond the iron bars, more prisoners walked in.

Since they were the first prisoners to enter after Jin Jaehee, the prisoners excitedly grabbed the iron bars with both hands.

“Whew-! Hey! Newbies.”

“Welcome. Oh? Welcome.”

The atmosphere became chaotic for a moment.

At that moment, Jin Jaehee said in a low voice.

“Sit.”

Then, the prisoners left the iron bars and sat down like well-behaved puppies.

Even though Jaehee only spoke softly, the prisoners instinctively felt her murderous intent and scurried away.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

The sound of the guards’ footsteps echoed regularly in Cell Block 3.

At the same time, the sound of the prisoners’ handcuffs clanging and sharp metallic friction could be heard.

Clang-! Screech…….

The guard reopened the iron door and let the prisoners inside.

The guard looked at Jin Jaehee, who was leaning against the inner wall of the cell, and Jin Jaehee glared back at him.

The two had made a deal.

“Keep everyone quiet.”

The guard left those words and turned to walk away.

A suffocating silence followed until he had completely left.

And when the guard had completely left, the prisoners rushed towards the newcomers.

Thwack! Thud! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The prisoners beat the newcomers, who were huddled on the ground covering their heads, to a pulp. They dragged the bloodied figures to Jin Jaehee.

Thump-!

The newcomers knelt before Jin Jaehee, bleeding.

“Ughhh… Ugh… Kill… Kill me… Please just kill me…”

The newcomers groaned and trembled.

Watching the newcomers writhe in agony, the existing prisoners chuckled and laughed.

But Jin Jaehee could not laugh.

Rather, her expression twisted.

“…Ho Seung?”

When his name was called, the newcomer slowly raised his head and looked at her.

* * *

Right now, I had a problem to solve.

Restoring the disrupted order.

First, I can’t escape from this pension [a type of lodging, similar to a villa or resort].

Because soldiers with the Wanderer status are densely guarding the perimeter around the pension.

If I don’t know their strength, it’s uncertain whether I can fight and win against them.

Of course, it would be possible if I used forceful methods, but that’s just a last resort.

The power of the Edict comes in two forms.

The first is the power of an absolute monarch, which is activated only when directly facing a member of the faction.

The moment you make eye contact with a member you face, you can issue an irresistible command to them.

The second is compliance with the laws stipulated in the Edict.

This is not as coercive and forceful as the first power, but if you break it, penalties will be imposed.

Although it cannot be calculated with precise figures, if you violate the monarch’s Edict, your lifespan will be reduced in real-time.

I could activate the second power to divide the faction internally, but this would inevitably lead to the collapse of my faction.

I don’t think Ha Yoonha betrayed me.

Looking at the numbers alone, she is thoroughly devoted to me.

But there must be something in the way.

Anyway, I can’t get out of here.

However, I can’t just sit comfortably in the pension and enjoy a vacation.

Then, how about slowly starting to disrupt things?

Even without using force, breaking down an organization from the inside is a very simple task.

The structure of an organization is simple: leader, rules, and relationships.

Organizations are centered around these three things, and if even one of these elements is unstable, the organization is bound to collapse.

These three elements can be seen as the three pillars supporting the huge board that is the organization.

When I first broke down the Manan Police Station from the inside, I took over the power by digging into the relationships.

But at the time, the Manan Police Station was in such a precarious structure that it was too easy to break down.

‘Is it the same here?’

I turned my eyes to observe people’s behavior.

A middle-aged woman holding a mop and cleaning the floor.

A young man cooking with intense heat.

A young woman organizing the bookshelf.

Several soldiers holding weapons and guarding the ‘inside’ rather than the ‘outside.’

Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, but their ultimate goal was one: to keep me locked up here.

‘Let’s test it. What kind of position do they think I am in?’

I got up from the luxurious sofa and walked towards the bookshelf on the opposite side.

Then, the young woman organizing the bookshelf naturally moved to the other side.

If they are serving me, their actions are very natural, because they are clearing the way so that I am not disturbed in what I am trying to do.

‘Pride and Prejudice. Should I read this?’

I picked up a suitable novel and headed back towards the floor.

The middle-aged woman holding the mop bowed to me and then disappeared to the other side again.

I sat down on the floor and began to read a book, basking in the warm sunlight.

‘…As expected.’

24 hours a day, anytime, anywhere, they never left my sight.

That would be the same for me.

I had never been out of their sight.

The young woman had moved away from the bookshelf, but she stood in a space where I could see her well and wiped things.

The middle-aged woman now put down the mop, took a broom, and began to sweep the yard.

I haven’t checked it now, but the woman who serves me at night is the same. She didn’t leave the room even when I refused.

Even when eating, even when washing, I was being watched by them anytime, anywhere.

They don’t talk to each other.

Their eyes have never met mine either, which means they are definitely trained agents.

But…

‘It’s strange.’

It was too strange.

If they were thinking of making sure I couldn’t escape from here, wouldn’t it be enough to just double or triple the number of guards?

I’m not a mole. I’m not a bird that can fly in the sky.

Why are they watching me from ‘inside’ this pension?

Serving me is just a simple facade. There must be something they’re after.

He’s quite clever.

‘Think, think.’

It was a suffocating tension and a suffocating pressure.

Clearly, this place was a villa no less luxurious than any other high-end resort, but I felt a chilling murderous intent as if someone was pointing a knife at my back.

Now it’s all or nothing: whether he stabs me in the back, or whether I turn around and counterattack.

* * *

The walnuts collided with each other, making a loud noise.

Crunch-. Crunch-.

Two walnuts rotated clockwise in the man’s hand.

But even though he was making such a noise, the other people in the room couldn’t pay attention to him.

The man was carefully observing something through binoculars.

Then, he took his eyes off the binoculars and let out a short breath.

“Hmm.”

Gil Daeheon, a confidant of Lee Seokjin and the man in charge of this assassination operation, scratched his temple and kept thinking.

At that time, a subordinate behind him carefully approached and asked Gil Daeheon.

“Boss, can I ask you one thing?”

“…What is it.”

“Why didn’t you just kill him? That guy, Kang Sion. As far as I know, his strength is weak. If you wanted to, you could kill him at any time, couldn’t you?”

“….”

In fact, if Lee Seokjin had tried to kill Kang Sion, he would have killed him right inside the vehicle during the escort.

But Lee Seokjin didn’t do that.

That would have been like self-destruction.

“How foolish.”

Gil Daeheon clicked his tongue at his subordinate’s foolish words and glared at his subordinate with narrow eyes.

“Do you see that as a person?”

“Yes, yes…?”

The subordinate didn’t know what Gil Daeheon was talking about, so he looked at Kang Sion in the distance.

Two legs, two arms, a head. He was a person.

But Gil Daeheon’s answer was different.

“That’s not a person.”

Gil Daeheon looked forward again and continued.

“That’s a bomb. A bomb that can explode anytime, anywhere. If that bomb explodes, we’re all finished.”

“A bomb, you say?”

“Yes, a bomb. Do you know why the United States didn’t completely destroy North Korea in the past, even though they could have?”

“…That’s because North Korea has nuclear weapons.”

“That’s not the perfect answer. Even if they had nuclear weapons, the United States could have neutralized North Korea at any time. But they didn’t. Why? Because there would definitely be gains, but there would be more losses. So, the fact that North Korea possessed nuclear weapons actually had the effect of deterring war. That guy is the same. If that guy thinks he’s cornered, he’ll immediately activate the power of the Edict. Of course, that would be a last resort, but why would a last resort be a last resort? If such an ending comes, we’re all finished.”

At Gil Daeheon’s explanation, the subordinate thought for a moment and asked again.

“Then why did Chief Lee put Kang Sion in that pension?”

“To kill him.”

“Yes?”

He’s a person who can’t be killed, but he was put in a pension with the purpose of killing him.

It was a sentence that didn’t make sense.

But the subordinate immediately understood Gil Daeheon’s next explanation.

“Our goal this time is to kill him without him even knowing it. We will directly intervene in Kang Sion’s overall life and kill him slowly. It’s to disguise it as a natural death or an accident that anyone can see. He must not die by someone else’s intervention. Absolutely. To deceive Kang Sion, he himself must not know ‘why’ he is dying even at the moment of his death. That’s the hero killing that Chief Lee planned.”

Gil Daeheon got up from his seat and put his hands in both pockets.

The subordinate briefly admired.

Land Department Head, Lee Seokjin, was a man who had been recognized for his outstanding intelligence and management skills and had been promoted rapidly within Mangyeong.

In addition, even during the Great War, he led many projects alongside Ha Yoonha and developed Mangyeong.

Of course, Lee Seokjin did not hesitate to do any dirty work for his own purposes: imprisonment, kidnapping, murder, intimidation.

Lee Seokjin was the de facto supreme ruler of Mangyeong, making even the top executives of Mangyeong tremble.

Gil Daeheon was Lee Seokjin’s ‘dog.’

Of course, Gil Daeheon had no choice but to be nervous about this operation as well.

The opponent is Kang Sion. If he is a great person worthy of an epic heroic saga, it will not be easy, no matter how much it is Lee Seokjin.

“Let’s see how that guy comes out.”

Gil Daeheon got up from his seat and walked to the other side.

Kang Sion in the binoculars was sitting on the floor reading a book.

(Continued in the next episode)