You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 530

Taeshik’s support arrived in Munyeok at 5 PM that day.

There were five of them, bringing two more cars.

This brought the total number of personnel dispatched to Munyeok to ten, with four vehicles.

Woochul and Hoyoung took the newly dispatched employees to a nearby Korean stew restaurant for dinner, then briefed them on the day’s plan.

“Is this many people really necessary?”

After sending the new employees into the inn, Hoyoung, who was smoking a cigarette near the market entrance, whispered to Woochul.

Woochul shrugged and retorted irritably, “Why are you whispering when we’re outside?”

“Ah, it’s a habit.”

“The more people, the better. We don’t know how many guys Wooshin will send to grab the driver, and who knows what else might happen.”

To get out of Munyeok from Bangjin Market, where this inn is located, you have to go through a small three-way intersection.

Once you pass this intersection, you’ll soon reach the IC [Interchange, referring to a highway on-ramp], making the chase much more difficult from there.

The probability of securing the driver drops sharply.

Fortunately, they said they would come at 1 AM, so around that time, there won’t be anyone around the intersection, including the market.

So, if we block off the entire intersection and the front of Bangjin Market and hold out, it will naturally be difficult for the Wooshin guys to snatch the driver.

“Hyung [an honorific used to address an older brother or male friend], they said they can’t allow more than three people per room.”

One of the employees, who had gone in with the inn room keys Woochul gave him, approached Woochul and Hoyoung sheepishly.

“Then rent two rooms across from that bastard.”

The rooms on either side were already occupied by the existing team members, including Woochul and Hoyoung.

“By the hour?”

“Ha, what should I do with this bastard? What time is it now?”

“……6 PM.”

“When did they say they’d be here?”

“1 AM.”

“Then how many hours is that?”

“7 hours.”

“Then would renting by the hour work? It’s only three or four hours at most, right?”

“……We can just rent by the hour twice.”

“Which is cheaper, renting by the hour twice or staying overnight?”

The employee who was talking to Woochul paused for a moment to count on his fingers, then his eyes widened as if something had occurred to him.

It was almost as if a light bulb had lit up above his head.

“I’ll book it for the night.”

“Ha, Hyung, aren’t you going too far? How can you send such a dimwit?”

Hoyoung shook his head, following the employee’s retreating figure with his eyes.

Woochul gave him a pathetic look.

Did he even realize he was just describing himself?

Actually, what I’ve realized while doing this job is that not everyone needs to be smart.

Of course, it would be great if everyone was smart, but realistically, that’s not possible.

If you put a smart guy in charge and attach a bunch of guys who are good with their bodies, you usually don’t fail.

Even if the guys who are good with their bodies aren’t smart, they have good physical reflexes, so if they just follow the plan, they won’t mess things up.

Thinking that the boss must have a grand plan, Woochul swallowed his resentment.

“Hyung.”

“What.”

“Should I book the room for one night or two?”

“……Why are you asking that now?”

“I thought we might have to stay here longer if things get prolonged…….”

“Book for one night, and if we need to stay longer, we’ll extend it!”

“What if there are no rooms available then?”

“Do you think there won’t be?”

First of all, there aren’t many people in Munyeok itself.

Naturally, this inn is almost empty.

To attract people who would rent rooms by the month, there would need to be jobs like construction sites nearby, but there aren’t any.

And the fact that there are no people here can be sufficiently inferred from the fact that the doors that should be tightly closed if there were people are slightly open.

“When you go into the room, start whispering from then on. Air 100, sound 0. The soundproofing here is terrible, so we can hear everything.”

Hoyoung added a word to the employee who was about to go back into the inn to rent a room.

Then the employee turned around to look at Hoyoung with an expression as if a giant question mark had appeared above his head.

He must have been wondering how he could talk with sound at 0.

Woochul, who was next to him, sighed and said,

“Just tell them all to shut up. If you have something to say, write it on your phone. Only open your mouth when I start talking out loud first. Got it?”

“Yes, Hyung.”

“Put your phones on silent or vibrate too. We can hear everything. If you need to take a call, go outside, as far as where we are now. If you take it in front of the inn, we can hear everything inside.”

“Yes, Hyung.”

The employee bowed his head and went back into the inn.

Woochul hit his forehead with his palm.

Considering Daebak Detective Agency’s hiring standards, it’s inevitable that there would be some dimwits.

Taeshik initially told Woochul that he hired people based on the criteria of ‘a few smart guys and a lot of guys who are good with their bodies.’

─You came in as that smart guy.

And Woochul was chosen.

Of course, whether you’re a smart guy or a guy who’s good with your body, the important thing is to keep your mouth shut.

So, unless it’s a situation where they absolutely have to share information, they don’t really know what other employees are doing, and they keep their mouths shut no matter what.

Sometimes, when the story of Attorney Cha Juhan, who looks even better in person than on TV, comes up, they even refrain from sharing their real-life reviews.

“Let’s go in too.”

Around 10 PM, the driver made a short call, saying, ‘Are you leaving now? I understand,’ and started rustling around, packing his things.

He’s been staying for three weeks, so he must have a lot of luggage.

It’ll take some time to get ready to leave.

I don’t know where the Wooshin guys are starting from, but if they’re in the Seoul metropolitan area, they should be near Munyeok by now.

“Doesn’t it feel like the Wooshin guys will be here soon?”

That’s how the time passed midnight.

The moment of truth was getting closer and closer.

“Ha, I’m so nervous……. How many are coming?”

“They don’t know we’re watching them, and they only just found out where the driver is, so who knows. They might not send as many as we think.”

“You think so?”

When they reported that the Wooshin guys would be meeting the driver in the early morning, Cha Juhan called immediately.

He said that the Wooshin guys had decided to hand the driver over to Japan, but they wouldn’t be going to the airport.

Since the driver strongly insisted that he had no intention of going abroad, they would probably drug him and put him on a boat if they were going to force him out.

Since Munyeok is in Gangwon-do, and there’s a port just a little further, he said they might handle it there.

He also said that if they couldn’t get him on a boat, they should consider the possibility of floating a fishing boat and encasing him in concrete…

I thought Cha Juhan’s reasoning was very plausible, but I didn’t expect a lawyer to come up with such a specific method as encasing someone in concrete.

Anyway, that’s why we might have to prepare for an all-out war.

We brought tools when we first came down to Munyeok, and the guys who came down today brought extra stuff, so it should be okay…….

[Two black cars entering the three-way intersection]

At that moment, an employee who was watching from outside sent a message.

[Looks like they’re coming to the inn?]

[Yep, parking in the parking lot]

[What do we do? Go in?]

Sure enough, the sound of gravel crunching under tires in the parking lot could be heard through the open window.

Hoyoung looked at Woochul, as if he had heard the sound too.

Woochul put his index finger to his lips, pressed his ear close to the wall, and leaned against it.

With one hand, he pulled the tool box he had taken out of the car trunk closer.

And he sent a message to the employee waiting outside.

[No, no, keep watching from there]

As soon as Woochul replied, a message arrived immediately.

[3 guys getting out now, 2 still in the car]

[Guys getting out are carrying 007 briefcases]

If there are five of them, we have ten, so we have the numerical advantage.

Thud, thud.

The sound of shoes echoed in the inn hallway.

─Chun Jongnam.

Soon, the footsteps stopped, and the sound of someone lightly knocking on the door of the next room could be heard.

Creak.

The old door opened, and they quietly entered the room.

─I see the person I met before didn’t come.

The driver, Chun Jongnam, said curtly.

─Something came up.

─Is that, money?

Chun Jongnam seemed to have found the ‘007 briefcase’ they had brought.

Then the sound of something hard hitting the floor could be heard, as if the man had tossed the briefcase to him.

Chun Jongnam said he would count the money himself with a counting machine, so once that was done, he would leave this inn.

Woochul sent a message.

[Quietly go out and block the market entrance and the three-way intersection as I told you, without making any noise]

As Cha Juhan said, if they leave Munyeok, the next chance to catch them would be all the way to the port on the East Sea [Sea of Japan].

But there would be more people waiting there, so we would be outnumbered.

We have to resolve it in Munyeok.

Not long after, the sound of a car starting could be heard in the distance.

Fortunately, the Wooshin guys didn’t find it strange that only one car was in the parking lot, and the other three were parked on the street, just in case.

─Count it. See if it’s 200 million won [approximately $150,000 USD].

─What about the counting machine?

─Ah, right. I forgot.

─Ah, when am I ever going to count all this? It’s not counterfeit money, is it?

─No. If you’re so suspicious, search online for how to check for counterfeit money.

─Do you think I won’t search then?

If we were going to give you counterfeit money, we would have given it to you a long time ago. There’s no reason to drag it out for three weeks.

─That’s true. Well, if it’s counterfeit money, I’ll just tell the police everything as it is. It’s not counterfeit money, is it?

─I said it’s not.

─Is it 5 million won per bundle?

─That’s right.

─Then there should be 40 bundles.

He seemed to have given up on counting each bill.

─Yes.

The man answered casually, as if he was bored, but Chun Jongnam started counting how many bundles of bills there were, regardless.

─One, two, three, four…… Ugh, ugh!

And then, a muffled groan, as if something was blocking Chun Jongnam’s mouth, came from his mouth.

At that moment, Hoyoung grabbed a crowbar from the toolbox and jumped up, rushing out of the room.

Woochul also picked up a nail-studded baseball bat in the same way.

At the same time, the employees who had been holding their breath in the opposite room heard the sound and gathered in front of Chun Jongnam’s room.

“Block the entrance to the inn.”

At Woochul’s words, three of the newly deployed personnel ran to the entrance, closed the door, and wedged tools into the handle.

Woochul and Hoyoung grabbed the doorknob of Chun Jongnam’s room and turned it.

As expected, the door was locked.

But it’s okay.

Since there’s a high wall with a narrow gap beyond the window of this room, there’s no way to escape except through this door.

You could break through the wall and run away, but the employees are blocking the entrance anyway.

“Let’s open the door.”

No sound can be heard from inside.

But that’s even more dangerous.

If we don’t open the door quickly, they might try to kill Chun Jongnam in the meantime.

“I opened it.”

Thud.

The doorknob fell to the floor.

Woochul looked at Hoyoung in surprise.

He thought he would have to break down the door and go in, but he didn’t expect to be able to pick the lock so easily.

“……Ugh, ugh!”

Beyond the open door was a spectacle.

Bills that had spilled out of the money bag were scattered on the floor, and one of the three men in the room was gagging Chun Jongnam with a handkerchief.

But it didn’t seem like just any handkerchief.

Chun Jongnam’s eyes were gradually losing focus.

Likewise, his resistance was also weakening.

Before the employees could enter the room, two men quickly got up and blocked the door.

“Damn it, how many are there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Since when……. You guys block those bastards.”

The man quickly lifted the already unconscious Chun Jongnam and violently threw open the window.

It seemed like he was planning to run away with Chun Jongnam through the window.

“There’s a wall back there, you idiot. With your build, I doubt even one of your calves could fit there.”

Hoyoung said with a sneer.

The man also seemed to realize that a gray-white wall was blocking the window and seemed flustered.

He quickly gestured to the men blocking the door.

The men immediately took out knives from their pockets and threw the sheaths on the floor.

It’s the easiest method.

Even if they don’t stab directly, it’s perfect for intimidating, since you might die if you get stabbed.

It seemed like it was something they had prepared for Chun Jongnam.

“What, gonna slice us up?”

Woochul provoked them.

That knife was a weapon to threaten the soon-to-be-dead Chun Jongnam, not to slice up a third party.

In other words, since the weapon is a knife, they won’t be able to attack easily, as things will become several times more disadvantageous if the situation escalates.

Hoyoung and Woochul exchanged glances.

Even if they fall, there’s a second line of defense blocking the inn entrance, and even if they break through that, there’s a third line of defense blocking Bangjin Market and the three-way intersection.

Hoyoung and Woochul quietly put down the crowbar and the nail-studded baseball bat they were holding.

“Ugh, ugh!”

And at the same time, they stuck the electric shockers they had in their pockets into their stomachs.

Since it was a registered item with the police, it was on a different level from the tingling ones circulating on the market.

They had prepared for a fight, thinking that the two would fight back with the tools they were holding, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the main thing.

In fact, it was also Taeshik’s recommendation.

It’s better to just knock them out for a while than to smash their heads with tools, as there won’t be any repercussions.

“Ugh, ugh!”

Perhaps because they were shocked for a long time, the two men collapsed to the floor.

Taeshik said that you can’t kill people with this level of electric shocker, and if you shock them moderately, they’ll just pass out, so those two must have just passed out too.

“Do you want to taste a million volts too, or are you going to leave Chun Jongnam? If you want to know why Pikachu is a scam, keep holding out like that.”

Stepping on the two men who had collapsed to the floor, Hoyoung and Woochul slowly approached the man.